Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · May 20, 2021 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Winds were light all the way up to ~14,000 ft. Some light drifting in the alpine. Warm and mostly sunny in the morning with clouds building and a few drops of rain around 2 PM. A trace of new snow in the last 24 hours.

Snowpack

Without a recent, good freeze, the snow from the past few small storms is not transitioning well and is holding water in the upper snowpack. This makes for a mashed potato type texture as melt water is not draining. On a south-facing slope at around noon I was able to get some rollerballs and pinwheels going. These gouged down just a few inches to the upper crust. Although the wet snow didn't gouge deeper than the upper crust, the crust was soft, and it was easy to push through with skis. The deeper crust is below several inches of polycrystals that are also now retaining water. I got a few small collapses beneath this crust, buried about 10 inches deep. The wettest and mushiest snow was on the sunniest slopes. Northerly was a little wet too but this was more at the surface and not deeper. All obs from above treeline. Not much going on lower down beside melting and bare ground.