Snow Cycle Summary 2/19-2/21
Trying to sum up this last cycle. Let’s start with the rant about southwesterly storms. Hit or miss for us usually with warm temperamental storms that can pass us by. Or dump rain. Bottom line is any time there’s a pineapple express and they call for 2 feet here, take it with a grain of salt and watch it. No exception for the last storm cycle. Calling for the big one, we got a fraction of what they called for, 4 inches on sun and a called 7 monday morning. Don’t get me wrong, plenty in ev for an awesome day off and an interesting change in the snow stability, but give me the north westerlies any day of the week.
The storm started as warm and wet with promise got windy and stayed off our track, unusual as we have had the storm track on our side for the year. Wind picked up and it seemed the snow line for the storm stayed just to our south. I thought I actually saw the boundary of snow around Mt Massive on my way up to Benchmark on Saturday.
Sunday was a bit of a surprise, as I thought the storm had passed us by. The seven inches was light an fluffy and the strong southwesterly winds loaded ev in typical fashion, turning the seven into two feet in the zone, making the skiing excellent but touchy for Sunday and Monday. Upcoming are trip reports for the last three days…
Mini Slide in EV 02.21.11
With recent snowfalls in East Vail, the team has been busy hitting the local terrain for analysis, and a bit of fun. Lots more to come in the next few days including localized field write ups and a couple lengthy video edits.
For now, we felt it important to share that two members of our team were caught in small slides the other day on OM in the EV chutes — we caught this little bit on video. It’s not much, but it should give everyone an idea of what the snow pack can be like underneath the fluff. More details to come, so stay tuned…
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…
Bighorn pit report
Hey all,
Took a few days off from ev waiting for the reset button to be hit. Big J and I took the opportunity to head up bighorn trail to the cabin. The day was bluebird, calm and April warm, perfect for skinning up.
The terrain in the drainage was spectacular, west facing alpine and filled in nicely. We saw some folks teeing it up early on the hike. No observed naturals anywhere and no activity from the bold skittles sending it. John and I were both enlightened to say the least at the possibilities for skiing big lines up to and around the cabin. The Gore with good snow is simply amazing.
After getting to the cabin we decided to head up above the cabin to check out terrain and snow. We stopped at about 11800 and dug a pit before we crossed a 34 degree W facing slope. Total depth was 230 cm. Got a CT25 with a q2 shear at 60cm. CTN for the rest of the column. Top 10 cm windblown soft onto of fist destiny snow, gradually turning to four finger of settled snow around 110 cm. Didn’t see any significant crust, ice or hoar layers and nicely homogeneous snow pack for Colorado. Pulling on the column with a shovel blade produced a second shear at 200cm, q2 little pop and failing on faceting old storm snow.
Suprised at the pit, actually with no layers of doom present and the snowpack layering right side up so far, soft to firm with no significant temperature gradient. Game on. We crossed the slope and headed back towards home. Planning on returning with some time to stay at the cabin and tee it up this spring. Awesome day and pleasantly suprised with moderate stability.
Mushroom Bowl Edit
A little video from early February in mushroom bowl – side country @ Vail. Snow pack was good and deep…if a bit thick. We were able to see a few natural slides on the north facing cliffs leading down into the bowl, but the lower portions seemed solid. A more detailed snow report, including details from a pit dig coming soon…stay tuned.
EV Golf Course Trees
No new snow in the past few days, but we caught this skier caused slide on the south side of the EV Golf Course trees the other day. Hard to tell from the distance, but it appears shallow and wide. We skied a similar, lower in elevation line, on the same face the other day and the snow seemed stable. As we pointed out the other day, sunshine and warm weather doesn’t mean it isn’t still dangerous out there.
2/10/11
No post the last couple days or EV reports. Getting over a mild concussion sustained on tues afternoon hucking right side of the ak shelf. A great indicator of the change the snow went through between tues and wed.Able to hit the AK shelf proper into bottomless tues wed it wasn’t the same. Skiing was excellent and concerns of a denser snow onto the lighter storm snow producing widespread instability seemed to be unfounded. Wary now of deep slab instability and slab formation on old weak layers as storm snow settles. Really general I know, hope to have pit results on friday afternoon. Bluebird skies have brought out the crowds an I expect this weekend we will see increased pressure in EV. Keep your eyes open for people above you.
Ev report for 2/6 to 2/7
Howdy folks and welcome the new EVI site. This site aims to provide local information and conditions specific to the Vail backcountry. It’s not in anyway a substitute for CAIC information but hopefully a specific detailed zone report forecast for the East Vail chutes and a forum for those who ride in the Vail backcountry.
It has been an epic couple of days in the zone, although the two dramatic differences in snow density and stability. Monday saw moderate temps with light blower powder in excess of 40 cms and light wind except on ridge tops. Moderate stability considering the amount of load on formed crusts from a week of sun and low temps. natural avalanche activity on the west wall and the middle of old mans observed to happen during the storm. conditions were some of the best of the year as big john and I were able to do a trifecta on old mans right, benchie center and a timber falls to complete the day in waist deep blower conditions. Skier triggered avie in lower section of tweeners on the secondary ne face ran 4 to 5 feet deep on old crust. I was able to cut the lower old mans runnout to tree stand exit e facing 30 to 35deg with no problems indicating the fact that trigger areas are localized and touchy.
Tuesday saw an additional 20 to 30 cm but much denser as the winds picked up at all elevations and temperatures dropped with the snow fall creating a much denser top layer. Able to get a sizable chunk of cornice to go in old mans and got the recent layer in the middle to go all the way to the flats. Big John and I skied the right side and found good snow creamier but still deep.
Friends…
East Vail Institute 