Vail & Summit County
AvalancheScott Toepfer · Apr 24, 2014 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Lenticulars and a few fair weather cumulus building. South winds above 13,000 ft were strong enough to transport snow for several hours onto north aspect slopes, but looked to be only above 13k. Warm below treeline, but the southerly winds were helping to keep the snowpack from falling apart.A good overnight freeze Wednesday night also helped keep south aspects from falling apart. Might have turned wet around 4 to 5 PM I suspect.
Snowpack
On south aspects. Started skinning about 1 PM. Surface remained firm. In any shade in timber it was well frozen at 2 PM. By the time I headed back to the trailhead at 3 pm surface was soft, sinking in maybe an inch. Could punch ski pole deeper, but the dust crust seemed to have finally gotten a good freeze. I hope that pattern continues.
Avalanche
Starting to see some good sized Loose Wet on southwest to west aspects a little above treeline. 4 in Clinton Gulch, maybe three larger ones off the west aspect of Democrat in the Sawatch zone