SUMMIT COUNTY — It’s a blue-sky morning on Mayflower Gulch, a popular backcountry area near Copper Mountain. And while other backcountry users traipse past in search of powder, Scott Toepfer has dug himself a handsome 3-by-4-foot snow pit.
The veteran Colorado Avalanche Information Center forecaster runs a series of tests, sawing off columns of snow, tapping the surface to see where the weaknesses lie and even measuring snow crystals through a magnifying lens. In one test, he slides the long saw into what he sees as a weak layer about 2 feet below the surface. In a split second, the layer cracks horizontally, and a 100-pound block of snow leaps out from the cross-section Toepfer has cut and lands at his feet.
“This means that even in a low-avalanche risk area, a slide is still possible,” Toepfer said.
Toepfer can talk snow all day. It’s his job, after all, and here in the avalanche-prone Colorado backcountry, Toepfer and his Colorado Avalanche Information Center colleagues are on the front lines of providing avalanche-risk information. They use field tests and weather forecasting technology to help backcountry users plan their trips and, hopefully, get home safely.
Read more of the article at VailDaily.com.
