Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Feb 7, 2024 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Everything. Sun, clouds, periods of snow 2" per hour, warm, cold, windy, calm. This was all due to intense squalls that moved through followed by clearing and calm weather.
Snowpack
Starting with deeper layers, there doesn't appear to be much change. I found similar results to previous field days in different areas; the layer buried in early January has gained strength and I am getting results of propagating cracks after hard taps in extended column tests on the basal facets (1 to 2 mm) at 35 cm from the ground. Any avalanche that breaks on this layer will be large due to the connected, hard slab. As evidenced by two avalanches (one near Jones Pass and one near Cameron Pass), avalanches breaking at the ground are still possible, especially with heavy wind loading. Moving up in the snowpack; surface hoar was found intact and standing on all northerly sheltered slopes we looked at. This layer is not an issue in these sheltered areas right now because there is no slab. There is more uncertainty on drifted northerly slopes. We did not observe enough of these slopes to feel confident it doesn't exists, and another forecaster observation from near Vail Pass found intact, reactive surface hoar on northerly drifted slopes. On east-facing slopes we found surface hoar too but it was knocked down and broken. There also is a surface melt-freeze crust on east-facing slopes even above treeline. It is thin and could be a potential failure layer with intense loading during this storm, but it is a non-issue right now except for some interesting skiing. Southeast-facing slopes have a thick crust at all elevations. It would take a large load to break beneath this crust.
Avalanche
There was good visibility at times and we did not observe any recent avalanches