Vail & Summit County
SnowpackKreston Rohrig · Feb 7, 2025 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Partly to mostly cloudy with moderate west winds and cool temperatures.
Snowpack
I probed around in many places to get a sense of snow depths and found a wide range depending on aspect and terrain feature. The heavily wind-loaded ridge lines were 2-3 meters deep but thinned out quickly as you moved down the slope. Flatter areas at the top of Benchmark were 120-130cm, while the area I dug in below Tweeners was 170cm. Generally speaking, the deep parts of East Vail are less concerning for avalanches breaking deep than other places I've seen with shallower snowpacks. There were facets and depth hoar at the bottom leftover from Thanksgiving, but they had started to round and gain cohesion. The most immediate concern was a buried layer of surface hoar 40cm down from the surface. The slab above it has weakened and did not produce fully propagating results, but this could change quickly with a new load. Where I dug was fairly protected, so it's hard to say how widespread this layer is in this area. It could be an isolated problem but it will catch people off guard if small pockets rip out well downslope from the major start zones.