Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Feb 28, 2022 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Calm and warm for most elevations. Slight breeze above treeline.
Snowpack
The recent storm snow from February 23 and 24 has settled into a 12" slab near treeline. This slab is cohesive, four-finger hard and sits of crusts over fist-hard facets on east and southerly slopes. I got two loud collapses walking above easterly-facing start zones but surprisingly, nothing slid. In extended column tests, I got propagating results with moderate force. On a south aspect, the crack propagated in facets below the upper most crust, 35 cm down from the surface. The total snow depth was 190 cm. On a southeast-facing slope, I also got a propgating result but the failure layer was faceted crystals that were buried earlier in the month and not with the last storm. This was 45 cm from the surface.---The snow got moist on southerly slopes today. On a near treeline slope, the moist or wet snow was just a few inches from the surface. It did not look melt water was making its way deeper...yet. On below treeline southerly slopes, the slab is much thinner and the 4 to 6 inches of snow on a crust was wet and easy to push.
Avalanche
Several avalanches noted in other avalanche obsverations. All in all, large avalanches that occurred during the previous storm were isolated and not a widespread cycles by any means. Largest avalanche was either upper Booth Creek (east, ATL) or Outpost Peak (southeast, NTL)