Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJeremy Primmer · Jan 1, 2022 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Cold temps and light winds, overcast in the morning but the clouds slowly broke up during the day.
Snowpack
I toured on southwest and south facing slopes and I found a continuous snowpack of about 80cm below the treeline. The snow from just after Christmas is starting to facet. In some spots the ice formation at the bottom of the snowpack is still 1 finger to pencil hard, and in these areas I did not get any propagating results with ECTs. I dug a pit where it was 4 finger hard and got a propagating result with moderate force. Above the treeline the snow coverage is variable ranging from just a couple of cms to 130cm. I dug in a crossloaded feature and found a pair of melt freeze crusts sitting facets from late November. I did not get any propagating results. On the way down I triggered a collapse that cracked 100’ out on a southwest slope below treeline. It failed on depth hoar at the bottom of the snowpack. This was the only obvious sign of instability I observed.