Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

There is about 6 to 8 inches of low-density recent storm snow on top of a faceted snowpack. The 6 to 8 inches was not wind-affected in the area that I traveled and this new snow was not affecting overall stability. Northerly winds were light today but it seemed they had moved some snow over the past 24 hours. It looked like the wind drifted some snow on to southerly slopes which are slopes that are not concerning for our Persistent Slab problem.---A quick snowpit on a northeast-facing slope near treeline showed a mostly faceted and weak snowpack. Nothing new there. The only crust in the snowpack was a hard crust right at the ground. Easy failures in compression tests @ 35cms from the ground (HS=67). The failures were at the top of the depth hoar layer.