Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Dec 23, 2022 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Cold start but much warmer day with broken skies. Clouds decreasing into afternoon. No wind transport observed
Snowpack
Traveled on westerly slopes below and near treeline. Below treeline the snowpack was about 1 meter deep. The structure isn't much different than previously documented easterly-facing slopes. There is large-grained faceted snow composing the bottom 30 cm of the snowpack with a thin, deteriorating melt-freeze crust at 30 cm from the ground. On a southwest-facing BTL slope I got a result of ECTP11 on facets on top of this thin crust. Below treeline the snowpack is still supportable to skis with ski pen of about 30 cm. The midpack slab faceted quite a bit previous to the wind event, but it's still supportable. Boot penetration is to the ground. Although there were small areas of wind-drifted snow below treeline, in general, wind-drifted slabs didn't change the overall makeup of the snowpack below treeline. Near treeline is heavily wind affected and the snowpack is very thin and rocky. Above treeline, westerly aspects have very little snow.