Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Feb 4, 2017 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
The morning began ovvercast with light snow showers. As the day progressed skies became broken. Winds were moderate and swirling in the drainage. Ridgetop winds were westerly and estimated to be 20 to 30 mph. New snow accumulation was about 2 inches but it was hard to tell with the new snow being redistributed.
Snowpack
Snowpack depth in this area is 180 cms to over 2 meters. Wind-drifted snow was forming a 10 to 15cm 4-finger-hard slab over a crust or faceted snow depending on aspect. Although the new slab would propagate in some tests, there was minimal other signs of instability such as shooting cracks. A steep, mid-slope, test slope produced no results on small cornice drops....On southeast aspects I found faceted snow surrounding a crust at approximately 40cms from the surface. On easterly aspects there was also a faceted snow layer 40cms deep but without a crust. This layer that was buried by the Jan. 20th storm is non-reactive but should be kept in mind if we get a large load next week.
Avalanche
The avalanche that occurred on Coon Hill yesterday was already covered by recent wind-drifted snow. No other avalanche activity was observed in the basin that I was in. A small natural avalanche on a north-facing slope across I-70 occurred in a cross-loaded gully. A larger natural Wind Slab avalanche was observed above treeline on an east-facing slope on the Clear Creek side of Loveland Pass.