Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Mar 2, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
The story of the day was the wind. Plenty strong enough to drift snow near and above treeline. A local weather station at 12,500 feet showed a few hours of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40.
Snowpack
Small wind slabs developing directly below ridegetop. Shooting cracks were just around fresh cornices and the slab directly below. No instabilities observed where the snow wasn't wind affected. I found a relatively shallow snowpack on northwest, south, and southwest near-treeline slopes. HS was 130, 130 and 100 respectively. The southerly slope had a poor snowpack structure with an 80 cm slab over weak, four-finger hard facets. I got an ECTP 29 on this layer but it's hard to put too much into this result as while isolating the column, I also was isolating a very strong 3 inch thick crust 12 cm down from the surface. It would take a large load or large trigger to affect beneath this crust. Northwest-facing near treeline is also not a great structure and with the shallow, 130 cm snowpack, this aspect will continue to be a player with future loading. A northeast-facing slope near treeline had a snow depth of 170 cm to over 2m. I didn't dig on this slope.