Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Tad Heinz · May 1, 2011 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Overcast, increasing snow by noon. About 3 inches snowfall in this period. Temp at 0900 23 degrees. No wind.

Snowpack

4 inches new snow, over old sun crust from Thursday, New snow layer up to 12 inches at 11,900 feet high point. No whoomping, cracking, or new slide activity. Little sluffing of the new snow but still not bonding to underlying sun crust very well. Evident on switchback skinning on 35 degree slope at upper Y. On pit evaluation, very weak hollow layer at 30 cm ( at 11,900 feet, below treeline, W aspect. Easy shovel shear at the 30 cm level, clean, fine grained shear surface. Medium shovel compression test, clean. Pit 1.6 m deep. Very solid deep to the weak layer.