Details

• Date: 2020/01/12

• Observer: Thomas Horner
• Organization: Public

Location

• BC Zone: Vail & Summit County
• Area Description: Sky Chutes, Y chute, skiers left arm entrance.

Weather

• Weather Description: Variable -- sunny to overcast, light snow at times. Calm winds below 11,000ft to consistent 20-30mph westerly winds near treeline. Temperatures somewhere in the range of 5-15 degrees. West-facing slopes of Peak 6-7, 10,000-12,000ft.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: We did not dig any pits. Snow near treeline was heavily wind affected with either hard slabs sitting on ground/facets or soft slabs sitting on ground/facets. Snowpack was highly variable near the entrance of the Y chute. A few inches of knife hard satstrugi with exposed tundra grasses would suddenly become thigh-deep wind deposited snow a few feet further down the slope. We set off avalanches on the skiers left side of the skiers left arm of the Y, on a relatively small slope approximately 35-40 degrees steep at its maximum. The snow was supportive entering this slope, but about halfway down we would sink to our thighs or waist and scrape our skis on the rocks below. This is when triggered small slides. The snow became consistently supportive and substantially different once we got a few hundred feet below treeline.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: We triggered three R1D1 soft slab slides that broke to the ground or base facets near the aforementioned NW facing entrance to the Y chute, on a different fall line from the main fall line of that branch of the chute. These slides ranged from 7-15ft? wide and ran 10-20ft. Crowns were the size of the wind slab, so basically the entirety of the snowpack on that slope, which was 2-3ft deep. Nobody was caught or carried.

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2020/01/12  †		3	TL	NW	SS	AS	R1	D1
Date: 2020/01/12 (Estimated) Observer: Thomas Horner Organization: Public Sliding Surface: O - Within Old Snow Maximum Crown: 90 cm

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