Vail & Summit County
AvalancheEast Vail Dale · Jan 4, 2023 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
10F, moderate NW to SW winds. Intermittent snow. Mostly cloudy.
Snowpack
Waist deep blower on top of a 1 finger layer that goes about 2ft thick in most places. Mixed layers with old sun and rain crust after that, then sugar to the ground. Seeing 7+ ft base depths at treeline levels in the overall area. Lots of wind transport across the entire area. area cornices are growing quite large and starting zones are looking absolutely stacked.
Avalanche
Continued snow and bad viz limited overall obs, but saw at least two loose slides containing new snow running from the cliff bands in East Marvin’s approx 600ft of vert down to the gully below. Possible other smaller slides from Ridgeline on top of Marvin’s gardens. Looked natural, but hard to say. Lots of skier traffic today out there, with several groups pushing into higher consequence lines like Ricks, Tweeners, and the far edge of Old Mans. No reports of instability other than lots of loose sluff from other riders I talked to on those lines. The entire East Vail area is as loaded up as I’ve seen it in many years and feels very ready for a big avi cycle in spite of limited obvious signs right now. Tomorrows warming temps could be the trigger, and/or this weekends additional snow load. These will be catastrophic avalanches and I needn’t remind you of East Vails rep. Stay frosty out there friends. Sorry for the bad photo quality.