Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAnonymous · Mar 25, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Overcast, no wind, 30 F temp at noon, periods of light to moderate snowfall.
Snowpack
HS=153cm 153cm to 130cm - recently fallen snow, Fist hardness, PPsd & DFdc, <2mm 130cm to 38cm - RGxf to FCxr to MFcl, 2F hardness, 2mm, pretty uniform midpack 38cm to 31cm - MFCL & FCxr, 4F hardness, 3mm, a lot more faceted than above 31cm to grnd - FCsc, 4F hardness, 3mm+, facets w/ some striated crystals ECTP14 - broke in the faceted layer just below 38cm, Q2, fast propagation with good energy, it surprised my partner and I how easily this failed with a pretty deep snowpack and not much load. RB7 - eventually the same layer as above propagated and failed, but it took a lot of jumping and it wasn't as fast and energetic as the ECT. The difference between the ECTP14 and RB7 results was concerning but I think illustrates the hard-to-trigger-but-goes-big message in the forecasts recently. I have less confidence in this snowpack after having performed these tests.