Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Mar 31, 2018 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Mostly cloudy with breaks of sun from time to time. Wind was strong at ridgetop but there wasn't much snow loading on to slopes. Temperatures felt cool at ridgetop in the wind.

Snowpack

I went looking for the distribution of wind slabs in this drainage but it was hard to find any significant and continuous slab across any slope. The snow surface was either a melt-freeze crust or on more northeasterly slopes a thin wind-packed crust. No significant shooting cracks or signs of instability. The top two inches would crack under skis but not thick enough to be an issue.---From reading other observations it seems the lack of wind slabs in this drainage is more of an anomaly and people are finding reactive slabs in other areas. Maybe yesterday afternoon's wind was too strong and disrupted the continuity of slabs? Hard to tell.---The snow surface did not warm and there was no sign of any wet avalanche potential on southerly slopes 11k and higher.