Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Apr 4, 2017 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Conditions at noon were calm winds at all elevations with light snowfall. After noon snowfall intensity increased and was falling at a rate of 2"/hr for short periods. Ridgetop winds increased out of the northwest during the late afternoon and wind loading was light but I assume it was more moderate at higher elevations. Storm snow totals (including Monday night) was about 8 to 10 inches as of 4 PM. 3 to 4 inches of that amount fell from 12 PM to 3 PM.

Snowpack

The 4 to 6 inches of snow from Monday night fell with little wind and as a result there was no instability related to new snow. If anything, some small Loose Dry avalanches in very steep terrain would be possible. As the next pulse of snow arrived after noon, winds picked up a little and I would expect there to be a developing Wind Slab avalanche problem. No slab development by the time I left at around 3 PM--- I dug on a westerly aspect that is usually scoured and found 2 feet of snow sitting on a basal layer of factes. ECTP11 on the basal layer. The snowpack looked a lot like a December setup. It won't be a problem as it seems another bout of westerly winds are inevitable. If we were to have continuous upslope storms (unlikely) and easterly flow, we would have to evaluate westerly ATL and NTL slopes for a PSa problem.---On an east-facing slope there was about 2 feet of settled snow that has fallen since our late March warm-up. I did not find any signifcant instabilities in the snow that has fallen since late March. With that being said, it is a wintery-type layered snowpack that is developing on top of the well-consolidated mid to lower pack.