Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Erik Lindstrom · Jan 9, 2011 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

easterly winds, pretty high at moments, snowing harder in East Vail than in bounds

Snowpack

We started kinda late 930 and were still the first (I think) to go towards the East Bowl. We were the first to drop Tweeners though. I had skied East Vail 2 or 3 days ago and there was almost a 1/2" of surface hoar at the top of Benchmark. So today at almost every turn down the top part the new snow sluffed away, nothing ever large (10 feet across, only new snow, and would run maybe 15-20 feet, at the most) but every little steeper slope seemed to break away. I never felt worried today but tomorrow may be a different story as it's been snowing pretty good here in Vail all day. Everything beneath that first bench after the 'tweeners chute' (below 10,000 feet I would guess) was fine though. This seemed to be the worst the snow has been reacting in East Vail so far this season, it has actually felt pretty good out there this year.