Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Mar 14, 2024 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Calm in the trees and very windy near and above treeline. Temperatures were cool. New snow 25 to 30 cm .

Snowpack

No storm slab issues were observed. Stability tests showed easy non-propagating results in Extended Column Tests (ECT) at the new/old snow interface. I dug on a low-angle west-facing slope and found the layer of facets and surface hoar buried in early February at 90 cm from the surface. No propagating results on this layer either. I removed half of the slab, after the standard ECT, and was able to get a crack to propagate in the weak layer after more shoulder blows. This slope was too low angle to be truly representative of crusts in the upper snowpack. I found a steeper slope and there was a thin crust beneath the new snow with small facets underneath. Although I found this newer crust/facet combination, I still did not find storm slab issues.