Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Feb 21, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Mostly sunny with clouds building from the SW. Light winds at ridgeline from the S-SW.
Snowpack
I dug in three locations, and as expected, found a good deal of weak snow. The first spot was on a north facing slope higher up the mountain but still below treeline. Boot pen was as deep as you could go once off of your skis. The height of snow was 120cm and was made up of facets and depth hoar with a deteriorating mid-pack slab that barely hit 4F hardness. Up higher around treeline I dug on a west and north facing slope. The west was not previously wind-loaded and the north was. Both places had a similar structure, with the north facing pit being a bit deeper. Basically in both areas, there is a bit of new snow sitting on a 40-50cm mid-pack slab that is only 4F hard and barely supportable when your skis are off. Below this is 30-80cm of weak facets and depth hoar. This set up is not ideal for handling a big load of new snow. If we get a juicy storm that produces over a foot of snow with strong winds, look out, avalanches will break deep and could go to the ground in these weaker areas.
Avalanche
Older debris piles were observed on half a dozen easterly above treeline slopes. Hard to tell when they ran, but guessing around Valentines.