Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJason Konigsberg, Scott Toepfer · Feb 14, 2017 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Skies were clear today and high temperatures stayed in the twenties at 12k ft. There was no wind-loading as winds were calm. Temps began to cool quickly after 3 PM.
Snowpack
On southerly aspects a couple inches of new snow sits on top of a hard melt-freeze crust. Northerly aspects are more wind-affected with very hard wind worked surfaces in exposed areas and a few inches of dry, settled snow in sheltered areas.---We dug on an east aspect near a recent avalanche in Vega Bowl adjacent to Keystone Resort and found a moist layer of facets 30 cms from the surface. Stability test results were ECTP16 on this layer. On a nearby southerly aspect, which was more the aspect of the avalanche, we found percolation columns extending down 40 cms from the surface with a thin ice layer at 40 cms that was likely where melt water was pooling at a faceted layer and is now frozen. ECTX results in this snowpit. A northerly below treeline slope had snow depth of 133 cms and contained a lot of faceted snow but there were no distinct, continuous weak layers.---In summary, the area we traveled today we found a stable and strong snowpack. Even though we received propagating results in one test, very hard snow and crusts would make it hard to affect this weak layer. The very large avalanche that occurred in Vega Bowl was the result of a period of very warm days and warm nights that contributed to melt water in the snowpack wetting a persistent weak layer.