Details

• Date: 2017/11/18

• Observer: Jason Konigsberg
• Organization: Forecaster, CAIC

Location

• BC Zone: Vail & Summit County
• Area Description: Black Lakes area

Weather

• Ridgeline Wind Speed: Unknown
• Ridgeline Wind Direction: U
• Wind Loading: None
• Temperature: 20 F
• Sky Cover: Clear
• Depth of New Snow: 12 cm
• Depth of Total Snow: 65 cm

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: As expected, the snowpack structure is very poor on northerly slopes. I was uncertain if there was enough of a slab from Friday's storm. Shooting cracks and collapsing was the norm around any northerly slope indicating that there was certainly enough of a slab. Later in the day I remotely and intentionally triggered an avalanche that broke near the ground. The area I traveled in today showed no signs of wind loading. For how soft the slab was, the propagation potential was higher than expected. Wind loaded areas with a harder slab would be even more dangerous than slopes I observed today. See attached snowpit for snowpack structure. Although there was a crust near the ground I did not find any crust above the depth hoar.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: I triggered this avalanche by jumping up and down in a flat area adjacent to the slide path.

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2017/11/18  †	Vail Pass	1	TL	NE	SS	AS / r	R2	D1.5
Date: 2017/11/18 (Estimated) Observer: Jason Konigsberg Organization: Forecaster, CAIC Area Description: Black Lakes Landmark: Vail Pass Sliding Surface: G - At Ground/Ice/Firm Weak Layer: Layer Weak Layer Grain Type: Depth Hoar Average Crown: 12 in Maximum Crown: 18 in Average Width: 200 ft Average Vertical: 200 ft Comments: ASrc

Media

Video

Conducting fieldwork around Vail Pass after 12 inches of snow fell in the last 24 hours. I triggered an avalanche and observed cracking and collapsing.

Images