Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Dec 24, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Chilly to start, transitioning to a beautiful day. Ridge top winds were blowing steady from the west, but there was very little snow available for transport.
Snowpack
The snowpack below treeline is not great. We found a super reactive crust/facet layer in the middle of the snowpack on a SE-facing slope that propagated over 50 meters, and had many other collapses on easterly-facing slopes. Thankfully, the snowpack is still thin below treeline (barely 60cm), and an avalanche on steeper slopes would have been small. As we neared treeline, the snowpack and upper slab thickened and remained reactive. We had a few more collapses (maybe 10 meters wide), that likely failed on weak facets below the newly formed slabs. Above treeline, we found thicker, denser slabs resting over less weak facets near the ground. This was encouraging, as the alpine didn't seem to be as dangerous as slopes near treeline and signs of instability vanished. That said, slopes just under ridgeline looked to be heavily wind-loaded in isolated terrain features and could produce much larger avalanches. These would definitely be slopes to avoid.
Avalanche
None observed