Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · May 1, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Skies were obscured with limited visibility and a few snow showers in the morning. Late afternoon cloud cover decreased but still mostly cloudy skies. Temperatures felt cool near and above treeline with the wind.
Snowpack
Below treeline I found about 3 to 4 inches of settled storm snow sitting on a melt-freeze crust. Below this crust is wet snow. The snow is supportable to skis and foot pen is only 6 inches. Near and above treeline the snow is unevenly distributed by the wind. Southerly slopes are dust on crust while northerly, east and cross-loaded terrain features are holding deep drifts of snow. The wind-drifted snow is stubborn and it was hard to trigger an avalanche on steep rollovers. A quick extended column test produced no propagating results on a northeast near-treeline slope. In areas near and above treeline, unaffected by the wind, settled storm snow is about 30 cm. This storm snow sits on a melt-freeze crust and the snowpack is freezing up nicely below the crust.
Avalanche
A few very small avalanches below cornices or maybe just cornice fall observed in surrounding terrain. It was hard to tell with the visibility. I triggered a small Wind Slab only a few inches deep on a small, easterly test slope.