Spring Avalanche Update

Thanks to Avalanche Tech Conny, Brian Moore FLNRO and Sal Demare Area A Director for the latest update on snow conditions in the avalanche paths on the Hurley. We don’t know when the road opening will be this year but updates will be posted here as they happen.

Report from Conny. From what I could see there is less snow in the start zones than typical of this time of the year. There has not been any avalanches since the end of January when two large ones reached the road. Those two slides only pulled out 30-40% of the available snow. So at this point there is a lot of snow up there that could slide. 

While the valleys are still cold right now there has been an inversion building and snow is getting warm on solar aspects like the Green Mountain paths. I expect avalanche at any time. Fortunately there is a bit of a cold front coming through tomorrow which will reduce hazard a bit for the weekend. The warm temperatures are back next Tuesday.  

The snowpack will likely melt out faster than it has in previous years because there is so little of it. Also, I expect a lot of it to slide in the next three weeks which will also speed up the melt and reduce hazard. The slides that are on the road right now will melt out quickly as the debris piles are pretty thin.