Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAnonymous · Apr 20, 2011 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
A great day to be in the high country. Another 4-7" on the ground...again! The skies finally broke early in the morning and gave way to partly cloudy skies with a high around 34 @ 12,000' at approx. 2pm with no wind as of yet...Moderate (15-20 gusts to 30) wind out of the Southwest rolled in around 4:15 and brought the cloudcover back in and the blowing snow kicked up causing some reduced visibility up high.
Snowpack
Another day of remarkably good stability throughout the area, but the temps late in the day (3-6) were above freezing above treeline leaving a 1/4-1/2" crust on top of 30cm fresh from over the past 72-96 hours. Several point releases directly beneath large cornices (likely hangfire triggered). Also some refrigerator-almost VW's have come down below Kitchen Wall over the past few days. Later in the day, dug a remarkable hasty pit @ 11,800' on East Aspect near Pass Lake 32-33 degree slope 34 degrees F. 325cm= top 30cm were fist hardness powder that has fallen over the past 3-4 days on top of 30cm of 1-2 finger on top of knife hard to the ground. Top 2 layers have bonded well, and the 30 on top was consistent snow (except the slight ice crust on top) STH @ 30 Q3, CTH25 @ 25 Q3. No whoomphing, no shooting cracks, only settlement to ankle with alpine snowshoes on. The SE facing cutbank below Pass Lake trees had either slid (one came down onto the road) or depostied roller balls down off the cutbank.