Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg, blase reardon · Apr 7, 2017 · Vail & Summit County
Snowpack
Very warm day with little wind and the snow surface on many slopes becoming moist. Numerous natural Loose Wet avalanches occurred on east through south to west aspects. Avalanche mostly came out of steep and rocky terrain and were mostly D1 size, though it looked like a few may have been up to D2. On a northeast slope that we traveled the snow became moist but we did not observe any avalanches or signs of wet instability on northerly slopes. On more northerly slopes there was a 4 inch hard and breakable wind slab over dry snow. We did not observe any thick and cohesive slabs of wind-drifted snow or any signs that any wind drifts were reactive. Pockets of hard slab likely exist in steep, northerly terrain.
Avalanche
Too many avalanches to count. Most were small in size but a few approached D2 in size. The majority of the avalanches were on southeast and south aspects with avalanches also occurring on east, southwest and west.