Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

seth hyman · Jan 17, 2015 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Bluebird.

Snowpack

5" of fluff on top of rapidly faceting midlayer. Two very distinct ice crusts about 10 cm apart are gaining strength in the upper 40 cm of the snow pack. these custs are 3-5 cm in thickness. Facets below the second ice crust are noticably larger and less cohesive than those that are sandwiced between the crusts. These observations were hastily made on southern slopes at ~11500 ft. Above treeline the surface windslabs are punchy and broke of in chunks 15-20 cm thick. N to NE slopes were heavily wind loaded and the ones that had slid. Last nights storm slab sliding on old snow. I couldn't tell if it had broken into deeper layers

Avalanche

at treeline 11500 N to NE storm slab