Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAustin DiVesta Matt Allan · Jan 24, 2025 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
A cold morning led to a pleasant day minus the strong winds from the west and southwest. There was light snowfall throughout the day, not accumulating too much by the time we had left.
Snowpack
The lower snowpack was thin and didn’t warrant trying to venture off the trail to ride as it was still thin; the Snotel site was reading only 33 inches of snow for the season. As we gained elevation, we found a snowpack well over a meter in most places we traveled, even in the trees. We dug a snowpit on an east-facing slope around 11,200 ft and found a somewhat soft and weak snowpack. The snow height was 131cm deep, but once you got off your machine, you’d sink to the ground. This area was entirely faceted snow in some degree of Fist to 4 Finger on the Hand Hardness Scale. In our Extended Column Test, we got propagation at the ground after two hits from the shoulder. We noted if you were riding your machine on a similar slope, you’d likely be able to impact this weak layer both climbing and descending. The other snowpit we dug was more of a northeast-facing slope. The snowhieght here was 155cm, while there were still daily weak layers, there was a mix of 1 Finger and Pencil hard snow that were buried likely due to the winds that move through this area. Here, we got no results in an ECT. Our primary takeaway from this is that you might be able to find a spot like this where it is deep, and you likely won’t trigger an avalanche, but then 100ft over it could be 90cm, and you could be able to trigger a deadly avalanche. We need to be cautious about riding slopes that are fully connected right now.