Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAndrew McWilliams · Mar 4, 2023 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
The day started with single-digit temperatures that warmed quickly into the teens with few clouds and light winds from the southwest. By noon the skies were overcast and winds had increased to moderate; still from the southwest. No precipitation.
Snowpack
Touring through west-facing trees the snow was generally supportable, although there were a few areas where I sunk into older layers of snow. Snow depths have generally increased in this area with small incremental loads, cold temperatures, and few days with sunny skies. I found depths around 140-180cm on northerly and easterly-facing slopes. Drifts were over 200cm and on one north-facing slope near treeline (where I was planning on digging) the snow was over 300cm. There were no signs of instability as I toured and test slopes were unreactive to ski cuts. Although I did not travel on any slopes that were continuously steep and loaded. The most recent snow had two layers. At the interface with the old snow, the snow was one-finger to pencil hard on the Hand Hardness Scale composed of rounds and decomposing fragments. Above this was 5-10cm of fist-hard low-density snow up to the surface. I dug two snowpits near treeline. On a northwest aspect, I found a snowpack that was rounding and gaining strength with no results in an Extended Column Test. On a northeast aspect, the snowpack was primarily composed of facets with about 30cm of decomposing fragments and precipitation particles. At the interface with the older faceted layer and the newer snow, I found repeatable propagating results in Extended Column Tests at 14 and 15 taps, but no results at the depth hoar interface.