Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAndrew McWilliams · Feb 12, 2024 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Light snowfall quickly gave way to broken skies and temperatures in the high teens and low twenties. Winds were calm while I was in the field.
Snowpack
I did not observe any cracking or collapsing on my tour, although where I dug my pit was supportable to boot travel in some places, and in others, I sank nearly to the ground. The snowpack was supportable to skis throughout. I did not notice any recent avalanches where I traveled. I observed an avalanche near this area on February 9th and confirmed that it likely ran on the buried surface hoar layer that I found about 30cm from the surface. The snow above this layer had no slab quality where I dug and I got one non-propagating result in an Extended Column Test (ECT) on this layer. The snow depth on this below treeline northerly slope ranged from about 90cm to 130cm. Below the surface hoar layer was a midpack slab about 45cm thick which rested on about 50cm of basal facets and depth hoar. I got propagating results in ECTs at the basal facet interface about 75cm from the surface, although these were after 19 and 22 taps.