Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAndrew McWilliams · Nov 29, 2023 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Few clouds became scattered and frigid morning temperatures quickly warmed into the 20s. Winds were light from the southwest.
Snowpack
Overall there is a similar snowpack here to the rest of the Vail/Summit area - thin. On easterlies, I noticed cracking and collapsing at the interface of the faceted surface slab that rests on a melt-freeze crust which is on basal facets. As terrain features wrapped around to the south and north, I stopped observing cracking and collapsing. Although they appear well-covered, northerlies generally have isolated pockets of drifted snow in terrain features. Easterlies have the most continuous coverage and look the most suspect. My snowpit near the ridgetop on a northeast above treeline slope did not have the crust/facet combination I noticed on other slopes. This combination was present on northeast to west-facing slopes near treeline, above treeline it is likely more prevalent only on east to south aspects. The only signs of instability on south and west-facing slopes was localized cracking around my ski track. However the snowpack was very similar to what I saw on east-facing slopes. Steep south-facing start zones were generally melted to ground, and not surprisingly south aspects have the least snow coverage overall. That being said, southerlies and westerlies have better, more continuous coverage here, that extends lower in altitude, than in areas further to the east. Moving forward, the Persistent Slab avalanche problem might have a wider distribution here than in other areas depending on snow totals and wind direction with the next storm.