Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Andrew McWilliams · Nov 23, 2022 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Single digits and clear to start the day. Light winds from the northwest became moderate at the ridgeline. A few clouds by afternoon but clouds were building over the Gore Range and Hoosier Pass obscuring them from view by late afternoon.

Snowpack

I dug a pit right at treeline on a north aspect near the Sister's Hut. At the pit location, the pencil-hard wind slab was mostly continuous across the slope and was supportive to skis and boots. As soon as I moved lower into the below treeline elevation, the slab became discontinuous to non-existent. The snowpack was generally supportive to ski travel, but there were some places that lacked any structure. The height of snow averaged 60cm near treeline, with drifts over a meter and areas of bare ground. Below treeline the HS was closer to 30cm with the deeper areas only reaching about 60cm. Surface hoar from the past few days of cold, clear nights and high solar inputs during the day was present only in protected northerly areas and in discontinuous pockets. The crystal size varied greatly from 2mm to 10mm and all of these growths had been knocked over and were laying on the surface. On the ridge, the wind was transporting low-density surface snow onto east through south aspects above treeline. Coverage on southeast aspects varied and some slopes only have snow in the start zone and are bare ground otherwise. Other slopes on these aspects have continuous snow throughout the path and micro-drainage differences in wind-loading and elevation are likely the cause of this difference. A 2cm thick easily breakable melt/freeze crust was present on the surface of the southeast-facing start zones. Westerly aspects were a mixed bag of areas with facet/crust combinations, areas with no structure, and isolated areas with a supportable slab.