Details

• Date: 2014/01/09

• Observer: David Dellamora

Location

• BC Zone: Vail & Summit County
• Area Description: South side of Loveland Pass.
• Route Description: We departed from the Pass Lake area and contoured around the East facing shoulder of the Little Professor (Peak 12,293) to check out the recent HS-AE-R3-D3 triggered by CDOT earlier in the morning.

Weather

• Weather Description: Trending from BKN to OVC by the late afternoon. Likewise, snowfall gradually increased from S-1 to S2 by 5pm. Westerly winds were generally Moderate.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: While digging on easterly aspects near TL we observed SP and SC fracture characteristics but no signs of propagation. However, a few hundred feet higher in the terrain a fairly destructive persistent slab avalanche existed as an obvious sign of instability. Generally, the snowpack is top heavy with the recent pencil hard wind slab, a mid-pack composed of faceted grains and eroding melt forms, while the lower third is composed of large depth hoar resting on an patchwork of ice forms.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: The average depth of the debris we probed was 1.5 meters.

Media

Images