Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

The snowpack in the areas we traveled was shallow and weak. There is a 1F layer in the midpack, but faceting is reducing the thickness of this layer and it would not support the weight of a skier in many locations. There is a well-developed surface hoar layer just below the small amount of new snow (overnight and daytime accumulation). This will probably be the weakest layer if it survives long enough to become fully buried. The top of the depth hoar is still a problem, but the slab was too weak to confine a fracture in most of the areas we traveled. We did not observe any cracking or collapsing in the snow.