Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJohn Snook · Mar 2, 2013 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Broken morning clouds diminished to scattered by mid-afternoon. Winds calm with occasional light gusts near and below treeline. Moderate westerly gusts above treeline. Temperatures warmest in a while - near freezing at treeline by mid-afternoon.
Snowpack
10-15cm of new snow on top of consolidated mid-pack. Much less recent wind effect than I expected near and below treeline. Surface storm snow was settling quickly into soft storm slab. Surface snow was just getting moist in sunny areas near and below treeline. Thin surface zipper crust forming in these areas by 3pm. Highly variable above treeline with hard and soft wind slabs. HS 125-160 cm in trees, and more variable above treeline. A couple east-facing ridge aspects held large cornices. Very limited cracking in wind slab above treeline with no propagation. Occasional collapse just above treeline in willows. Two natural slides on northwest aspects just above Sts John townsite. Started above treeline, mid-path, probably during last Sunday's upslope event. Two other naturals on SE above treeline aspects. The first was fairly significant with hard slab that broke down to ground and debris nearly to bottom of drainage. Probably ran mid-week. The other was smaller hard slab starting just below a cornice and looked to run in just recent storm/wind slab.