Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Apr 21, 2024 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Sunny with moderate winds above treeline. It was very warm near treeline where there was not much wind. It was colder above treeline with the sustained winds.
Snowpack
I experienced numerous collapses but they were minor due to the shallow depth. The layer collapsing was a layer of wet snow above a shallowly buried melt-freeze crust. The 4 to 6 inches of moist snow was forming a slab. Although I got cracking and collapsing on steep slopes, I did not trigger any avalanches. The location of these collapses was east and southeast-facing slopes near treeline. ---On a north-facing slope near treeline I found a snow depth of about 2 meters. Five inches of dry, new snow was sitting on top of a knife-hard, thin melt-freeze crust. There is dry snow beneath this crust. It seems like it would take cloudy, mild conditions and warm nights to cause a wet problem on these due north-facing slopes.---On a near treeline east-facing slopes there was 6 inches of moist to wet snow over a softer melt-freeze crust. Beneath this crust is another 10 inches of soft melt forms. If the upper crust melts we could see larger avalanches gouging into older, soft snow. There is a knife hard ice crusts (previous frozen melt water) 16 inches from the surface.---I didn't see a snowpack structure conducive to wet slab avalanches. Loose wet avalanches continue to be the main threat although this is trending down with Monday's wind and clouds.