Vail & Summit County
AvalancheScott Toepfer · May 1, 2016 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
New snow and snow height taken at about 11,200 feet Our route took us from south to north. No wind till we crested the ridge. Then a bitingly cold N wind just strong enough to drift snow onto south aspects. Plenty of snow to transport (16"). Skies obscured all day with lite snow (S-1) pretty much all day. Reports of rain at 8,000 feet till 10 PM on nite of 29th.
Snowpack
At 8,400' ~ 3" new, at 12,000 ft 16" of new. Initial snow seemed well bonded to old MF crust, but there was a mid-storm density change that created a weak layer that failed on snow tests and ski cuts
Avalanche
Kicked some small cornice along the top of a S aspect face, with only some sluffing, summited, then came back to where we had kicked the cornice off. Initial ski cut triggered a SSAScR1 D0.5 on the south aspect. 20" X 50' X 150' vertical. Enough recent wind drifting to stiffen the new snow into a cohesive slab, though the fresh soft cornice was not enough to trigger it when dropped onto the slab. Ran on mid-storm snow layer. A Wind Slab avalanche A 2nd SSAS R1 D0.5 at ~ 10,800 ft on SW aspect ran surprisingly fast on 40* slope once it started to gain some mass. Ran on old MF crust. Storm Slab avalanche.