Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Feb 28, 2019 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Generally broken skies with good breaks of sun.

Snowpack

Overall I found a strong snowpack in most areas I traveled. The snow depth on three different slopes with three different aspects was about 2 meters. The only layer of concern I identified was a layer of faceted crystals above a melt-freeze crust on a southeast-facing slope. This layer was down about 1 foot from the snow surface. Extended column test did not propagate a fracture and a compression test broke with a resistant planar fracture character after 18 taps.---As for the snow surface and future bonding, an inch of snow sits on melt-freeze crusts on southerly and westerly below treeline slopes. A soft snow layer exists underneath the surface crust which should collapse with a large load. Near-treeline did not have the surface crust. Uncertain as to if the 1 inch of new snow will act as a weak layer with the incoming storm. I would think so where it sits on a crust but the new snow warmed a bit today which could make for a decent bond.---The weakest snowpack I found today was on a northwest-facing open slope near to below treeline. The snowpack felt unsupportable to skis and would be concerning if heavily loaded. This could be just an isolated area as it usually remains very thin but is snow covered at this point.