Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Anonymous · Nov 19, 2014 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Mostly sunny, light cold wind out of the west at 12250ft.

Snowpack

Many signs of dangerous instabilities were present today when investigating E/NE facing aspects off Uneva Peak (12250-12000ft zone) including evidence of recent slab avalanches - 1 potentially skier triggered and 1 that appeared to have released naturally mid-way through the recent storm but didn't travel far. There was widespread settling and cracking when testing E aspects. Some of these leeward start zones were also showing signs of wind slab development. The snowpack on W/SW aspects at/below treeline was settled and well set up with no warning signs of instabilities. The snowpack on N/NW aspects in the alpine looked pretty severely wind affected.

Avalanche

The first avalanche observed was recent and may have been skier triggered (sympathetically), probably within the last day or so. This was on the E facing aspect of Uneva's north ridge. No ski tracks in or out of the avalanche, but tracks in the vicinity leading us to believe it may have been sympathetically triggered. The avalanche was a large slab avalanche (approaching size 3). The avalanche was approx 90-100ft wide and ran approx 200 ft (~12250-12050ft). Crown depth of 1.5-2.5ft pretty much to the ground. While poking further to the north on Uneva's north ridge to gain information we witnessed a second major avalanche, as it occurred. This was a skier triggered avalanche. Looks like the party that triggered this slide have already posted their obs. This aspect was a much more northerly aspect, heavily wind scoured all around, but crossloaded in the gully. This was also a large slab avalanche and could have very well (almost did actually) bury the person who triggered it. The trigger was the 2nd to descend. These guys are seriously lucky no one was caught and buried. Crown depth estimated from afar to be 1.5-+3ft. Hard slab. Size estimated to be approx 50ft wide above the choke and ran approx 300ft (12350-12050ft).