Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Jan 22, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Skies were mostly cloudy to overcast with occasional breaks and the sun poking out. Snowfall was anywhere from none to a burst of S2 around 3 PM.
Snowpack
On a sheltered northeast-facing slopes I found a snowpack with a depth of 120 cm. The snowpack is mostly faceted with about 40 cm of new from the last few weeks. 10 cm of that is within the last 24 hours. This 40 cm of snow rests on a weak layer of near surface facets. I did not get any propagation in on that layer or on the depth hoar in an extended column test. In sheltered areas the near-surface facet layer seems unreactive.---The wind was drifting snow into small reactive slabs on crossloaded terrain features. The slabs were pretty thin and generally harmless but I didn't explore any bigger terrain where slabs might have been larger and more consequential.