Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Apr 22, 2021 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Visibility was in and out as was the sun. I was mostly on a near-treeline ridge where wind loading was light even though winds were moderate. Above treeline (near Peak 1) the wind loading looked intense. It was hard to distinguish moving snow from the clouds forming on the leeward side of the range.

Snowpack

I traveled from 9000 ft to 12000 feet on easterly slopes and for the most part there was a few inches of moist snow on top of a hard crust. The snow from the last week has consolidated into just a few inches and in most places there is little to worry about. Directly below ridgetop is a different story- a 8 to 14 inch thick slab rests on facets above a crust. This was on a northeast-facing slope. I got varying results in several ECTs but the bottom line is that some propagated and the block slid very easily on the crust. The slab only extended about 20 feet down from the ridge. It seems that above treeline would have a much thicker slab near ridgetop and this is the more likely place to trigger avalanches. I didn't get much above treeline due to the poor vis and strong winds. On southeast-facing near treeline slopes, I did not find a significant slab. This could have just been due to the local terrain variations where I traveled.