Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Nicholas VIncent · Feb 9, 2017 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Scattered skys Light to Moderate winds. Gust to 30. Still some snow available for transport. Lots of wind etching up high Warm but wind was keeping things cool ATL Snow was sticking to skins NTL and BTL. Globstopper in February?

Snowpack

11,790ft East aspect, 90 degrees Slope Angle 22 Found a concerning, propagating weak layer down 47 cm. CTM (16) SC,Q1 and ECP19 SC, Q1 on the same layer. At first I thought it was surface facets but chatting with some other folks it sounds like is could be decomposing graupel. Under the loupe, the grains appeared to be facets in a broken column shape, 1 -2mm in size. Hardness was weak over strong and appeared to be solid within the upper 100cm. The weak layer was hard to see but I noticed it breaking as I was digging.

Avalanche

None