Details

• Date: 2020/03/21

• Observer: Scott Sowers
• Organization: Public

CAIC Comments

Location

• BC Zone: Vail & Summit County
• Area Description: Little Silver Coulior off Buffalo Mtn, Summit County
• Route Description: Ascended the East Slopes from the top of Wildernest, and dropped at the top of Little Silver before the main Silver Coulior, ENE ascpect

Weather

• Weather Description: We started our tour about 8:45 and reached the summit of our line at about 11:15, ascending the east face of Mt Buffalo. The weather was bluebird and warm, 28 degrees as we started our tour and then quickly warmed up above freezing. Little wind on the ascent but it picked up around the time we dropped in, about 11:30.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: Wind slab approximately 4"-8" deep on the top ENE aspect at approximately 12,000' from the summit. As we continued down the slope it maintained about 4" deep through approximately 10,000' where the snow transitioned to more hardpack/sun affected with approximately 1"-2" fresh snow to the bottom, approximately 9,000'

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: 1st skier triggered slide was the largest, on a NE aspect along the left side of the slope just outside of the tree line at approximately 11,000', propagated 20'-25' across and ran approximately 300'. The slide broke on the hard crust snow beneath approximately 5" of fresh snow/wind loaded slabs. 2nd skier triggered slide was also on a NE at about 10,200' and propagated 15'-20' across and ran a length about 200', also on the same wind loaded snow along the left skiers left of the coulior.

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2020/03/21  †	buffalo Mountain	1	>TL	NE	SS	AS / u	R1	D1.5
Date: 2020/03/21 (Estimated) Observer: Scott Sowers Organization: Public Landmark: buffalo Mountain