Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jeremy Primmer · Jan 26, 2022 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Windy and cold. The wind was out the WNW and variable speeds gust were in the low 30s at the ridgeline. There was not a lot of snow to move around but was there was loading on to easterlies.

Snowpack

I left Loveland Pass and headed to the top of Cupid. On the way up, I saw thin wind slabs on west and southwest facing slopes above the treeline. Most were pretty thin and just cracking underfoot. The longest crack I could get was 10’. Digging into a shallower SW west-facing slope, I found a thick melt-freeze crust at the top of the snowpack sitting on facet crust combos with fist hard 1mm facets. Near the ridgeline, the snow has been pounded by the wind. On easterlies, I saw a couple of old cracks from wind loading, and there were some shallower spots with 15cm of wind slab sitting on 15cm 3mm depth hoar, but most places hold a deep unreactive snowpack. The new snow is faceting quickly in the few protected spots where the snow was still soft. The wind had switched since last night, and the little snow available was either getting blown away or loaded onto easterlies. While skiing down, I dug a pit on a SW facing slope above the treeline that held a dit deeper snowpack. The snow height was still only 65cm and held several crust facet combos, but the midpack had a stiffer slab from the holiday storm, and I got a propagating result with hard force on 1mm facets underneath this slab. Depending on how large the next loading event is, I could see aspects with a deeper snowpack only having stability issues with the new and old snow interface while southerly and westerly facing slopes see avalanches breaking deeper on these crust faucet combos.