Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Mike Floyd · Jan 20, 2021 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Few clouds with moderate to strong southwest winds.

Snowpack

Shallow wind slabs sit on top of layers of weak facets. Depths are 60-90 cm. In more wind-sheltered areas near and below treeline, the slabs are softer and capped by a few inches of low-density snow. In less wind-sheltered areas near treeline, the slabs are harder and supportive but tend to have weak snow beneath them like in other areas. I found numerous places where I would sink to the ground on foot but was supported on skis in the upper portion of the snowpack. The bottom line is that areas capped by wind slabs will be reactive when the next storm load arrives. The areas that are soft need a slab to develop widespread reactivity. When a storm comes, lower elevations will be reactive and produce small avalanches. Higher elevations will take more weight to trigger old slabs but be bigger when they do. Above treeline is scoured to very low or no snow on westerly aspects. Winds consolidated snow into specific terrain features, along with the avalanche problem. My general observation is that this still looks, sounds, and feels a lot like an early-season snowpack even though it is mid-winter.