Vail & Summit County
SnowpackDrew Gibson · Jan 28, 2023 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Light snow throughout the day. Periods of S2 and greater from 1130 on. Wind speeds were moderate and increasing at 1400 transporting snow. Random spots of blue sky would appear before things would sock back in.
Snowpack
There was approximately 14 inches of new snow in most places below and near treeline. Some old tracks were visible, but very few. Trees had heavy snowfall on branches and I did not observe any signs of wind loading below treeline. Near treeline a light to moderate westerly wind was moving snow around, but no active loading was present. I jumped on a few wind exposed test pillows at treeline that were about 30 degrees with no notable results. Moving to steeper test slopes (>35 degrees) at and below treeline, I observed shooting cracks 15 – 20ft off my skis and I was able to trigger small Storm Slab releases 1 to 2.5 feet deep. I triggered these small pockets on N, NE, and SE aspects. Below treeline on the more solar aspects the Storm Slab was failing on an old, thin, and brittle (<1cm) crust. On the colder aspects the slab was failing on old faceted surface snow. It was easy to elicit shooting cracks on terrain features near and above 35 degrees. By 1400 wind speeds had picked up and wind loading was occurring above treeline. Travel in the alpine was made in full white out conditions so no observations could be made. While I was making my way back towards treeline, snow surfaces were stiffening during the increased wind speeds. The wind was not stripping snow on more exposed windward slopes, instead saltation or “zebra stripe” pillows were forming. Some near and all below treeline terrain was not being affected by the wind and surface conditions were as expected.