Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jared Reene · Dec 13, 2021 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

12,000 ft NE aspect, above northern forest service road on Hoosier Pass.

Snowpack

Pockets of wind affected snow interspersed with bare ground NTL. Average HS was 30-40cm, interspersed with drifted pockets of 60cm HS. Quick pit on 30cm HS section revealed 5cm Pencil/Knife-hard wind crust, atop 15cm first-hard facets, followed by 10cm depth hoar to ground. Depth hoar was 4-5mm in size. Top wind crust layer fractured and slid upon isolation at interface with fist-facets below due to extremely poor bonding between layers. A full CT/ECT was not possible due to the sensitivity of the crust/facet layer interaction. While the the snowpack along the north/northeast aspects of Hoosier Pass is not contiguous at this time, the above observation was common throughout multiple areas and could remain buried under new snow once additional snow arrives.