Vail & Summit County

There was evidence of recent avalanche activity all along the east-facing slopes below the ridge from last weekend. The crowns and debris were covered up a bit by recent snowfall.

Crisp, cold morning with light cloud cover and calm winds.

In sheltered lightly wind-affected areas, the snowpack is mostly faceted with a few thin crusts. The faceting below the crusts was some of the most impressive I've seen. Around 20cm down, below a thin wind skin, there were large 4mm depth hoar chains that were incredibly weak. Each of these thin crusts creates a vapor barrier that accelerates faceting and will be problematic with a big load. It's an ideal step-down situation that could ultimately gouge to the ground. NE at 11650. On an east-facing slope at 12200', the recently formed slab was supportive to skis, but boot ben went straight to ground. I was able to get propagation in ECTs (21), and PSTend 30/100 on a layer of facets below the crust that the slab sits on. The slab is breaking down (faceting), but I still wouldn't trust any wind-loaded slope right now.