Vail & Summit County
AvalancheDrew Gibson · Dec 7, 2022 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Increasing skies through the day. Wind speeds were calm below treeline. Near and above treeline wind speeds picked up significantly. Temperatures were in the teens but warmed into the mid to high 20s.
Snowpack
Traveling below treeline on northerly aspects was difficult due to downfall and deep, structureless snow. Trail breaking averaged 60cm-70cm deep and in some places up to 1m. Working around on a southerly aspect towards treeline it was more supportive in places but still tragically trap door. Below treeline on the northerly aspects the snowpack has rotted quickly. In many places, the bottom 1/3 to 1/2 was depth hoar. Collapsing was isolated to the immediate area around my skis. Under the roughly 20cm of new snow, the old snow surface was a bit stiffer at 4 Fingers, but it is decomposing quickly. In my pits, stability tests had easy to moderate scores but not propagation. The 4 Finger layer seems to lack the cohesion to communicate a failure. Added weight to the snow pack could change this quickly. Near and above treeline the snowpack was very talkative with rolling collapses fairly common while moving across the top of north and northeasterly slopes. The winds up high have stripped the windward aspects and are building stiff slabs and pillows directly below ridgeline lee to the WSW. Some pillows were so hard they could not be affected by skis while some of the softer test pillows were very reactive to skis with shooting cracks moving out up to 10m in 1 Finger hard snow. One new natural avalanche was observed and other avalanche activity was isolated to small cornice collapses that did not initiate larger slides.
Avalanche
Natural observed from ridgeline.