Vail & Summit County
AvalancheRyan Van Nuys · Jan 11, 2018 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Partly cloudy, temps in the lower- mid 20's at 9500 feet, primarily shaded east facing slopes. Light winds.
Snowpack
About 25-35 inches of total depth, nearly completely faceted for the lower 2/3 of pack. 8 inches of fresh snow with a fairly high water content on top. No perceivable slab in hasty pits, but snowpack showed evidence propagation with large widespread collapses and the ability to remotely trigger collapses. Left me with the feeling that any slope in the area steep enough to slide would slide very easily with these conditions.
Avalanche
The terrain was simply too mellow for actual slides(20deg or lower), but remotely triggered plenty of visible collapses, leaving visible cracks up to 100 yards away.