Vail & Summit County
AvalancheAIARE ITC · Feb 11, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Clear skies, no precipitation, light west wind and no blowing snow, air temperature at 11000 ft at 15:00 was 19 F.
Snowpack
On a W aspect at 11000 ft, the height of snow was 180 cm. We found that the top 80 cm of snow increased in hardness from fist hard snow at the surface to 1 finger. Down 80 cm, a 4 cm layer of 2.0 mm facets was sandwiched between this 1 finger snow above and a 1 finger hard layer below. We had repeatable sudden results (CTH SC) on this layer. At this location, the slope angle was 18 degrees and there was not a crust present below the facets. However, on adjacent slopes greater than 25 degrees, we could feel a more pronounced crust when probing.
Avalanche
We observed two small D1 natural avalanches on a WSW aspect at 11,150 ft that we suspect released within the last 24 hours.