Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Nov 18, 2017 · Vail & Summit County
Snowpack
As expected, the snowpack structure is very poor on northerly slopes. I was uncertain if there was enough of a slab from Friday's storm. Shooting cracks and collapsing was the norm around any northerly slope indicating that there was certainly enough of a slab. Later in the day I remotely and intentionally triggered an avalanche that broke near the ground. The area I traveled in today showed no signs of wind loading. For how soft the slab was, the propagation potential was higher than expected. Wind loaded areas with a harder slab would be even more dangerous than slopes I observed today. See attached snowpit for snowpack structure. Although there was a crust near the ground I did not find any crust above the depth hoar.
Avalanche
I triggered this avalanche by jumping up and down in a flat area adjacent to the slide path.