Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJeff Grabham · Apr 16, 2011 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Overcast. Scattered winds and snow showers along the ridge. As the tour progressed, small pockets of wintery weather rolled in.
Snowpack
Dug a quick pit in the top roll over of the Monte Cristo Couloir, a 39 degree slope. Total snow depth around 195 cm. Pit was dug to 170cm Mostly 4F-K hard layers. Top 4 cm were a very hard crust over a 8 cm fist hard layer. We obtained compression test results of CTM 13 Q1 at 65cm from the top, CTH 23 Q3 at same 65 cm layer. ECTN, no results from the extended column test. The 65cm layer was an ice crust sitting on top of pencil hard snow. Below 165 cm we saw typical rocky mtn depth hoar. We initially skied the right side ridge on the surface crust. It broke in dinner plates around us. Then we got into the gully which was softer, yet variable snow.