Vail & Summit County
SnowpackDrew Gibson · Apr 29, 2011 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Light snow in the early morning but it burned off quick. Scattered skys let the sun come through and heat things up. Up high the wind kept things cool. Down low it glopped up, then the moring of 4/29 it was frozen and heinous.
Snowpack
On the South aspects there are areas of isolated wind slabs and wind stripped melt freeze crusts. New snow on 4/28 averaged 40cm on top of a melt freeze crust sandwich. We didn't venture out onto anything steeper than 30deg or so since the light was flat. There was a small skier triggered slide on a ENE aspect at about 11,400. Aspects in the upper basin were staying cold. I dug a couple test pits on northern aspects around 12,800. There was well over 320cm on most slopes. I couldn't find a MF crust in the pits but I did find some interesting facet layers that were weak in sheer, but had moderate strength in compression and no propagation. We popped off a small pocket at treeline, East facing, with a ski cut. The rapid warming and lack of wind down there was the key factor. There was another skier triggered slide not far from the hut that was kicked off by a solo skier that could have ended poorly.