Front Range

Avalanche

Ryan Zarter · May 2, 2021 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Broken skies with periods of light snowfall (S-1) off and on. Moderate NW winds with no snow available for transport. Temperatures were right around freezing while I was in the field.

Snowpack

I dug on a north aspect near treeline and found a snowpack that is slowly transitioning to a spring snowpack. Where I dug the Hs was 135cm. The upper 50cm of the snowpack conisted of moist snow and melt forms. Below that the snowpack was 1F to P hard dry rounded grains. See snow pit profile for more detail. Traveling on east and southeast aspects below treeline, I found a saturated snowpack that was marginally supportable to skis. Near treeline on these aspects the upper snowpack was wet. It was supportable as I was traveling to the Sisters, but becoming a little less so on my return.

Avalanche

I saw a few small (D1 or less) WL avalanches that ran on east apsect near Pass Lake sometime after noon on May 1.