Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Apr 4, 2018 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Winds were moderate with strong gusts at ridgetop. Light winds at lower elevations. New snow from Monday night's storm was about 3 inches with wind drifts of up to 8 inches.
Snowpack
On sunny slopes the snow surface froze well before Monday night's storm. On most slopes conditions were a few inches of dense snow on top of a melt-freeze crust. Near ridgetop there were 8-inch thick slabs of wind-drifted snow that would crack under skis. These slabs were small and isolated to just below ridges.---I dug on a couple of northeast-facing near-treeline slopes. In both snowpits I found very thin buried crusts ~20cms and ~40cms from the surface. In one pit I got no results on these layers. In the other snowpit I got easy ECT results at 20 cms from the surface and there was an identifiable thin layer of small facets on the upper crust. HS was 170 to 195 cms.---A due east-facing slope near ridgetop was isothermic with moist snow to the ground. A thick 4 to 5 inch surface crust was supportable to feet and skis.