Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAndrew McWilliams · Dec 27, 2024 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Skies were broken to overcast with intermittent light snowfall. Light winds were variable, but westerly and temperatures were in the teens.
Snowpack
There was about 20cm of new snow and the wind was surprisingly light for this area. The new snow was still soft and was not forming an especially cohesive slab where I traveled. A more prominent ridgeline likely would have had more slab development. In a pit near treeline on a northeast-facing slope, my only result in an Extended Column Test (ECT) was a non-propagating failure in a layer of decomposing fragments at the bottom of the storm snow after ten taps. When I ascended a little higher on the ridge from this pit, there was slightly more cohesion in the storm snow layer and I got shooting cracks from my ski tips and remotely triggered a small avalanche at this interface. I got another non-propagating result in an ECT in a pit near the slide, but only after one tap and the fracture extended up and through the storm snow. In two of the three pits that I dug, I was able to identify the early December Drought layer and got propagating ECTs after three taps from the elbow in both pits - one was on an east-facing slope and the other was on a southeast-facing slope. Below the December Drought layer, the snowpack was entirely composed of faceted grains and I couldn't pick out any real difference in layers from the Thanksgiving storm or earlier. I think the layer below the storm snow and the December Drought layer will become more reactive with additional snow and wind in the forecast and you'll be able to easily trigger avalanches.