Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Mar 11, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Grey day snowing S1 for most of the afternoon. Fairly warm and definitely moist.
Snowpack
The new snow was not bonding well to old crusts formed over the past few days. In steeper terrain the 2-3" of new snow from this afternoon easily sluffed off and sped downhill.
Avalanche
We were surprised to find evidence of very-large avalanches that likely failed Thursday or Friday (3/7-3/8) during peak instability. The slopes that failed were west facing and below treeline. The snowpack was generally weaker in this area pre-storm, and clearly couldn't handle the massive load from last week. Many large trees were uprooted or snapped in pieces in the runout.