Vail & Summit County
SnowpackRon Simenhois · Mar 5, 2021 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
A warm sunny and calm day after about 4" of new snow the day before.
Snowpack
Below 11000 ft on SE-E aspects, the snow surface was wet with a moist 2 cm thick CR layer earlier in the week. The top 10 cm FC layer under the CR was moist. I observed Runnels on these elevations on SE-S aspects (see images). Above 11,000 ft, that snow surface was still wet on SE-S aspects, but the CR layer underneath it was dry. The snow surface on E aspect was dry but with a 1 cm thick CR layer about 1 cm below the surface. I managed to get failure initiation under my skies on the FC layer below the CR. But could not get crack propagation. The snow on N-NE aspects remained cold on all elevations above 11,500 ft. The mid-pack on E aspect NTL is strong and can hold a lot of load before the basal FC/DH layer underneath it will collapse. See snow pit for more details.