Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Apr 6, 2021 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Mostly sunny till about 11 AM. Clouds moved in and mostly clouds by 2 PM. Breezy for most of the day above treeline.
Snowpack
The snow surface got a good freeze overnight with supportable conditions from the trailhead to above treeline. Above treeline really never softened up and stayed frozen. Even with all the warm weather, the snowpack in this wind-battered area is still wintery under the melt-freeze crusts. Descending to near treeline the snow surface softened slightly. Ski pen was minimal. Boot pen was about 8 to 10 inches. The snowpack near treeline on sunny aspects has seen melt water flow through a good portion of the pack. I noticed old shooting cracks, spiderwebbing across a southeast-facing slope. It looks like melt water pooled on a crust 30 cm from the ground. The depth hoar near the ground was moist but didn't look like it got flooded yet. Once we get a series of freezes and the snowpack locks up, it will be hard to affect this basal layer or get melt water down to this layer again. Below treeline the snowpack was unsupportable on the exit. I would have avoided steep, sunny below treeline slopes today.
Avalanche
A few long-running avalanches observed off the southeast side of Tenmile Peak and the east facing rocky ridge to the south. It is unknown when these avalanches ran. There were also two fairly recent wet avalanches in west-facing below treeline paths in Tenmile Canyon.