Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Mike Floyd, Mike Cooperstein · Dec 7, 2020 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Clear skies, warm temperatures, calm winds.

Snowpack

Travelling below and near treeline, we observed 20-40 cm of faceted snow on north and northeast aspects. The snow is supportive to skis, but boots penetrate to the ground. Generally, coverage is thin and rocky. In a search for slabs, we dug near treeline on a northeast aspect that had 55 cm of fist-hard faceted snow that you could easily dig your hand through. In the midpack, there was a 10 cm layer of four-finger hard snow — the last dying remnant of an old slab. It was isolated to the terrain just below the ridgeline. The basal 10 cm was 2-4 mm depth hoar. South through west aspects near and above treeline are melted and scoured to bare ground in many places. We did not find continuous slabs. We did not observe any loose snow sluffing. There is an overall lack of snow for avalanches.