Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · May 5, 2016 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Mostly clear skies with a few high clouds in the early morning. Another warm day with high temps in the low 50s at 11000 ft. Light westerly wind at ridgetop.

Snowpack

Clear skies last night lead to a solid refreeze of the snow surface at all elevations despite most weather stations showing overnight lows above freezing. The top inch of the thick crust on southerly aspects softened by 9 AM with the underlying snowpack being very supportable except for below treeline. Once the surface crust broke down below treeline the snowpack was unsupportable. No new wet activity was observed but we were back at the trailhead by 11 AM.