Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAnonymous · Apr 20, 2021 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Small amounts of snow moving around the highest peaks but otherwise light winds with no transport. It felt cold and wintery above treeline.
Snowpack
Lots of wind effect from last night and this mornings winds. Northerly slopes were crossloaded and slabs were about a foot thick. The wind-drifted snow sits over a two-inch thick wind-packed layer with facets beneath. We descended a slope with a slope angle in the low to mid thirties and did not observe any obvious signs of instability. We moved over to a southwest-facing slope and triggered an avalanche about 10 inches deep where the snow was slightly more wind affected. The snow was also seeing sun giving the slab a more cohesive feel. The avalanche failed on .5 mm faceted crystals above a crust. There were facets below the crust too, but the avalanche stayed on top of the crust. The slab was one-finger in hardness. A couple quick handpits on somewhat sheltered northerly slopes showed well-defined facets beneath the same hard wind-packed layer that we found earlier. There wasn't much of a slab with only about 4 to 6 inches of fresh snow but where you find recent wind drifting, you are likely to find a similar structure with a buried faceted layer.