Vail & Summit County
SnowpackDrew Gibson · Apr 23, 2024 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Periods of intense sun in between passing squalls with snowfall to S1 at times (graupel). Shifting moderate winds SW and NW.
Snowpack
I started around 11:00 am with the intention of looking at wet snow. Between 11,600ft and 12,200ft on east and south aspects, the snowpack had become largely unsupportive to boots, I was sinking to a little above my boot cuff ~40cm or so. It was obvious that the snowpack had not had a complete freeze in quite some time. I’m sure in the morning the surface crust was supportive, but with periods of intense sun and greenhouse effect in between squalls, this undoubtedly broke down quickly. Despite the generally wet snowpack, it was supportive to skis at these elevations. At 12,000ft on an east-facing slope, I found a little over a meter of snow, all of which was wet. The basal layer was a mix of wet large-grain depth hoar and wet poly grains. This basal layer was so soft it nearly fell out of the pit wall but the free water is holding it together just enough to make it feel a bit harder. Above 12,200ft on an east-facing slope I found a little over 50cm of cold, but very dense snow from the last storm. It is bonding well to the old snow surface (thick but not entirely frozen melt-freeze crust). The recent snow is insulating the snowpack and it would likely take many hours of freezing temperatures to lock up the top 1.5m of snow. Depth in this particular area was a little over 2m. The old snow/new snow interface did not produce any propagating test results. The wind was doing an ok job at keeping things cool up high. On upper elevation southerlies structure was similar except the most recent snow has wetted out and is now part of the homogeneous glob. The accumulated graupel was minimal, but as soon as the sun hit it the snow became sticky and difficult to ski.