Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Apr 20, 2022 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Very windy. Cloudy most of the day with short breaks of sun, more sun than the clouds by the time we left at 2 PM. A lot of dust in the air and on the snow surface.

Snowpack

Clouds and winds kept snow surfaces in check though they still got slightly moist from warm temperatures. On a steep cross-loaded north-facing slope we observed small pockets of wind slab that were failing near a buried dust layer. Small slabs (not more than 6 ft wide) broke at our skis. The slope was more cross loaded where it wrapped to an east-facing aspect.--- We skied down a south face at 2 PM and the snowpack was very supportable with just an inch or two of thawed snow at the surface. Below treeline was mostly unsupportable in the flats except for where it was a packed down trail. There wasn't much of a freeze the night before.