Vail & Summit County
SnowpackChris Hluchan · Nov 20, 2017 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
11,900ft elevation NE Aspec Sunny skied, Few clouds
Snowpack
Snowpack was variable. We found very different snow conditions on two parts of the same hill. In one area, the snow was 90-115cm deep and in our pit we found some sugary looking snow at the base but it was still between 1F and 4F hard and we couldn't produce any results in an extended column test. This was maybe 100ft below the top of the ridge. We moved roughly 500ft north along the same ridge and found the snowpack was more like 50cm deep. We saw obvious cracking in the snowpack and there was a fist hard layer of basal facets 25-30cm thick with consolidated snow on top. We could easily create and propagate additional cracks by stomping on the snow. The slope angle was in the low 20s at the most.