{"id":802217,"date":"2019-12-11T16:14:11","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T23:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=375765"},"modified":"2019-12-11T16:14:11","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T23:14:11","slug":"wind-creates-dangerous-avalanche-conditions-around-summit-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/wind-creates-dangerous-avalanche-conditions-around-summit-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind creates dangerous avalanche conditions around Summit County"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A northeast-facing slope Tuesday, Dec. 10, on Peak 2 in the Tenmile Range.<\/strong>
Colorado Avalanche Information Center Facebook<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 State officials are warning backcountry recreationists and mountain residents to stay wary of avalanches after a number of slides made their way down paths in the Tenmile Range and Loveland Pass in recent days.<\/p>\n

While some people\u2019s avalanche awareness tends to kick in with each new snowstorm, experts said high winds also can create dangerous conditions, even without any new snowfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the avalanche activity we\u2019ve seen in the last day in the Vail and Summit County areas, most are classified as a natural triggers,\u201d Colorado Avalanche Information Center Director Ethan Greene said. \u201cWith the winds we\u2019ve been seeing, it will start to move snow around, and it\u2019ll strip it off the upstream side of the terrain and load the slopes on the downstream side of the terrain. It\u2019s just like if you have a really big snowstorm \u2014 it adds weight to the snowpack, and it can definitely trigger avalanches.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been a number of avalanches in the Summit County area over the past couple of days, including on the northeast-facing side of Peak 2 on the Tenmile Range, the southeast-facing slope near Loveland Pass, and on Vail Pass and near the Eisenhower Tunnel on Tuesday \u2014 one of the most active avalanche days of the season so far. While the slides mostly have been categorized as small or medium, they serve as good reminders to recreationists to avoid any wind-loaded slopes.<\/p>\n

According to Greene, wind conditions following a snowstorm can be just as vital to understanding avalanche danger as the storm itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say it snows 3 inches,\u201d Greene said. \u201cThere\u2019s weight associated with that. You put 3 inches on top of your preexisting snowpack, and in most cases, that\u2019s probably not going to have a huge impact. It\u2019s not going to cause a huge change in avalanche conditions. \u2026 But as the wind hits the mountain range, it has to go over the top of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greene said that when the wind picks up, it essentially could pick up the 3 new inches of snow from the ground over a widespread area, about 50 acres for example. The wind will continue to pick up speed as it heads over the ridge of the mountain, where it will quickly decelerate and drop the snow on the other side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to drop that snow over 50 acres,\u201d Greene continued. \u201cIt\u2019s going to drop it in a ribbon over the ridgeline. So in effect, you have 3 inches of snow that fell out of the sky, but for those slopes on the other side, you may be putting 6 feet of snow on top. That\u2019s why the wind is so important. \u2026 The wind is actually much more effective at moving snow around and putting a lot of weight in specific areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Greene emphasized that while the avalanche hazard level is trending downward following the snowstorm earlier this week, backcountry visitors shouldn\u2019t let their guards down. There have been at least 135 avalanches reported statewide since the storm ended Monday, Dec. 9, according to the Avalanche Information Center, largely due to wind-loading on weaker layers of snowpack.<\/p>\n

Anyone heading to the backcountry should be sure to check the up-to-date avalanche conditions at avalanche.state.co.us<\/a>. The website also maintains backcountry avalanche forecasts<\/a> that can provide some insight into hazards a day in advance. The avalanche hazard in the Summit County and Vail area is considerable, but even with a low or moderate rating, backcountry visitors need to use their best judgment as conditions could change throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to read the forecast because we\u2019re going to give you some idea of what\u2019s been happening, and what we expect to happen that day,\u201d Greene said. \u201cIs the wind going to have a big impact? Where is it affecting the snow? It gives you a head start. But while you\u2019re out during the day, you definitely want to be paying attention to this. If we see increased wind speeds, you will see an increased hazard, and that could happen during the period of a backcountry tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A northeast-facing slope Tuesday, Dec. 10, on Peak 2 in the Tenmile Range.Colorado Avalanche Information Center Facebook FRISCO \u2014 State officials are warning backcountry recreationists and mountain residents to stay wary of avalanches after a number of slides made their way down paths in the Tenmile Range and Loveland Pass in recent days. While some people\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 09:12:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}