Vail & Summit County
SnowpackTim Brown · Mar 23, 2013 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Mostly cloudy and cold with light snow, light northwest winds and very little wind drifting.
Snowpack
As usual, the snowpack is deeper around here than it is in most of the zone. Depths in shaded areas are well over 6' near treeline but only 2-3' well below treeline. Storm instabilities are not very reactive in this area. Settled storm snow slabs are around 8" thick and bonding pretty well to old snow surfaces. Wind slabs are about 18" thick and gently loaded just below ridgelines for about the top 50'. The basal weak layers have gained some strength since my last visit and are buried at least 1.5m deep in most start zones.