Friday EV Report 02/18/11

Hey all,
Did an East Vail yesterday on the 12 in. of new. Didn’t feel like it as most of the snow fell early on Thursday morning, upwards of 2 inches an hour it seemed. Warmer temps on friday and the denser wetter snow helped settle it fast and only felt like 6 or so on friday.

Able to kick off sizable cornice chunks on right side of benchmark that propagated into a decent slide over the cliff band and into the flats. Not recommended to mess with cornices, but a great stability test if you can do it safely. Always impressive to see moving snow at work and a good reminder about how fast and powerful slides move. We have reached our average for snow and are looking on NOAA at a wall moving in from Utah, winter storm warning in effect, reset button waiting to be hit.
Going to be a crazy crowded weekend in EV watch above you for people and expect major changes in stability with the storm moving in. Stay tuned…