Vail & Summit County
SnowpackCasey Dowling · Dec 30, 2012 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Clear and cold. Steady winds from the Southwest.
Snowpack
Pit dug on NE facing aspect at treeline had two windslab layers. One was at the surface and very reactive. We had trouble isolating this layer for a compression/propagation test. This layer was about 10 cm thick. When isolated, 2 taps from the wrist caused this layer to fail. The failure surface was planar and cracks propagated across the full length of the test column (1m). Another wind slab was roughly 40 cm down and 30 cm thick. This layer took substantially more force to fail (3 wallops from the shoulder). However the failure surface was planar and smooth. Cracks propagated 20 cm. At the base (roughly 1 m down) was about 20 cm of depth hoar. No pit was dug on the SW aspect as snowpack was quite shallow and wind stripped. Depth was only about 30-35 cm below the ridgeline. In summary, good powder turns can be had on N-NE aspects but care must be taken due to wind loading. South facing aspects are more stable but prepare to break out the p-tex.