Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Justin Krul · Apr 30, 2019 · Vail & Summit County

View on map

Weather

Cloudy with short bursts of snowfall and short patches of sunshine. Winds S-SW ~15 mph. Aspects lee to S-SW winds actively loading with plenty of fresh snow for transport.

Snowpack

The area around Jaque's Peak received ~10-12" of new snow over the past 48hrs. 12-20" fresh snow above old surface (melt/freeze crust). Quick pit (dug on 4/29 at 1230) on North aspect at 12,100' found 20cm fresh snow/windslab on top of 5cm melt/freeze crust that hadn't quite frozen yet on top of 50cm rounding facets on top of 5cm DRY depth hoar on the ground. CT18 SC on top of depth hoar. On 4/29 below ~11,600' the old snow never froze despite ~7" fresh snow and colder temperatures. In an open meadow at ~11,300' observed multiple collapses in an area previous heavily traveled by hut traffic; the new snow apparently overloaded the warm, wet snowpack at this elevation.

Avalanche

3-4 small R1D1.5 windslab avalanches observed on N-NE aspects just below ridgeline at 12,200-12,600'; apparently occurred overnight 4/29.