Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Austin DiVesta · Mar 7, 2022 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Temperatures were below freezing for the entire day. Winds were light toward out of the northwest with very little snow blowing around. Clounds kept moving in and out until about 1 pm when stayed over the basin.

Snowpack

I traveled mostly on east and south-facing slopes near and above treeline today. I found no obvious signs of instability like recent avalanches or whumpfing. However, I did see some cracking on the skin track under my foot, but was not widespread. I found four to five inches of new snow resting on top of a very supportable melt-freeze crust that formed last week with the warm spring-like temperatures. I dug a snowpit on a southeast-facing slope above treeline in a wind-drifted area to try and figure out how tonight's winds will affect the avalanche danger tomorrow. I was able to get a medium propagation result on an Extended Column Test on that melt-freeze crust. The slab resting on top was only 4 Finger minus, once this slab becomes denser we will most likely start to see more avalanches on this layer. Right below the one to two-inch thick crust, I started to see some faceting that could become problematic if you find a weaker spot in the crust or start to warm up again.