Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Dec 26, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
A pleasant day in the 10-Mile Range with mostly sunny skies and only a light westerly breeze.
Snowpack
Below treeline the snowpack is losing strength top-to-bottom but a mid-pack slab is hanging in there and remains supportable. HS ranged from 50-80cm which is still remarkably thin. The upper 20cm is completely faceted, which makes for good skiing, but doesn't bode well for future storms. Near treeline on an east-facing slope we dug next to the remotely triggered avalanche from 12/20 in the lower bowl. Surprisingly, the HS was only 75cm on the north flank of the avalanche. After the prolonged cold temps and clear night, the snowpack here is also losing strength (see attached profile). The upper 20cm is weak facets with a touch of newer snow and sits above a degrading mid-pack slab. Below the stronger slab, the basal layer is large grained facets and 3mm Depth hoar. We were able to get repeatable propagation with moderate scores in ECTs, failing below the slab into the weak basal grains. Again, not a great setup for future storms.
Avalanche
Nothing new observed.