Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Jan 17, 2025 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Sunny day with clouds building in the afternoon.
Snowpack
Below treeline and near treeline slopes with a 120cm snowpack are losing strength due to cold temperatures and clear nights. As mentioned above, this holds true for more wind-sheltered slopes but would change drastically if you venture on slopes with harder wind-drifted slabs. In these areas, I could see well-connected slabs throughout the terrain that I would feel confident are sitting on weak faceted layers formed in December. Crusts were evident on many surfaces at lower elevations or aspects facing the sun.
Avalanche
I observed another avalanche just north of Birthday Chute on the same aspect and with similar slope characteristics. They likely failed days ago around the same time.