Details

• Date: 2014/05/06

• Observer: seth hyman

Location

• BC Zone: Vail & Summit County
• Area Description: Coon Hill
• Route Description: Ascended NE face of terrain feature the demarcates 12400' of the SE ridge of Coon Hill as it terminates above I-70 west. Traversed the ridge N towards the summit and skied down a nicely filled in depression between the aforementioned ridge line point 12400 and the final SE pitch the gains Coon Hills summit,

Weather

• Weather Description: @ 1500 warm, overcast, humid. winds gusting to 20 mph after 1600

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: This warming trend can not be overstated. Whoompfing on all aspects and elevations. pockets of very loosely consolidated spring grains ranging in depth from 3" to 3 ft.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: From atop the ridge there was evidence of wet loose and slab activity. The entire SE ridge of the basin west of Coon Hill slid. It was most likely triggered by a large bus size chunk of cornice that cleaved from above a nearly vertical E facing cliff band, There were chunks of debris the size of small cars at the terminus of the debris, and the depth was likely >10 ft. Portions of the dust layer were cleanly exposed throughout the slide path, which I'd classify as R2D2 500-600 vertical ft by 200 ft across, The south chute/ bowl of Coon Hill that drops you back to the highway pull out also slid, and involved wet slab activity.