Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJon Lowe · May 9, 2015 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
tour involved E,S and N aspects from 10K to almost 14K. When fully above tree line around 0730 skies were still ominous with on and off flurries. As we approached our highpoint the skies cleared and let us continue our climb. Around 13K and above winds were south and east, gusting 30's, pluming N to S on the high ridges. Warm enough at 1100 to start melting 3 or so inches of new snow below tree line. snow still supportable for skis down low
Snowpack
Winds above tree line were keeping the snow dry. Snow was consistently ankle deep and pretty nice booting on the S face of Crystal. This snow was supportive with skis on and skied nicely. Most of the time it took a few stabs and maybe 15 lbs of pressure to fully submerge an inverted ski pole with a nordic grip. Curious how the North aspects were feeling, we started skinning over there with some steeper (maybe 40 deg) booting in the conversation. Initial impressions of this snow were that it was overall very similar to the S facing stuff with a little less of a surface crust. It had very good skin purchase and the booting was more boot top instead of mid boot deep. This all seemed great until I suddenly stepped into a strange sand box of graupel buried beneath the soft 3-4 inches of surface snow. Some surface graupel had been blowing around on the S aspect across the valley and was not a game changer, but this stuff did not feel trust worthy to us so we ripped skins and enjoyed the apron. Anyhow, look out for localized graupel underneath whatever snow falls tonight. I could really see things ripping out easily on such a bed surface. Happy Snow!