Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Apr 26, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Light winds above treeline near Peak 6. Skies mostly cloudy with some filtered sun getting through the clouds. Above treeline high temperature 32 degrees as of 4 PM, below freezing temps when we were out. Lower down at 11k temps in the mid-40s.
Snowpack
Supportable snowpack with a frozen surface as we traveled up westerly slopes at around 10 AM. The cloud cover, greenhousing and generally warm temps helped the top 1 to 2 cms to soften making for easy travel.The snowpack on west-facing slopes is a conglomerate of crusts, at least in the upper 45 cms. Below that is moist, small-grained rounds to the ground with the remnants of facets near the ground. The snowpack on a northwest-facing slopes near treeline was mostly dry except for the moist top few inches. In a shallow area (about 80 cm), dry facets were near the ground. In deeper northwest-facing areas, facet near the ground were still dry but much smaller, rounding and more homogeneous with the rest of the snowpack. Rollerballs and pinwheels noted on northwest, near-treeline slopes but only gouging down about 4 inches.
Avalanche
None observed. One small dribbler in the Monroe path in Tenmile Canyon.