Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

David Dellamora · Apr 9, 2013 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Monday temperatures were rather mild, visibility was broken to overcast and moderate southerly winds gusted along the ridge. Today, temps remained near or below freezing, sky cover was again BRK to OVC but south winds were generally light.

Snowpack

The snowpack, on east and north slopes near and above treeline, remains wintery and difficult to interpret. We experienced touchy avalanche conditions near Buckeye yesterday but today offered no natural signs of instability or avalanche activity. Similarities include: depth hoar 2-3mm that are slowly beginning to round, propagation tests continue to fail on top of the basal facets, the stiffer and rounded mid-pack remains pencil in terms of resistance, numerous faceted, melt freeze crusts can be found near the surface, and new snow (between 5 and 10cm) was not reactive. Although the two zones are only about 10 miles apart, differences include: Buckeye Peak sees far less skier traffic than the Ptarmigan area, a drop in temperature of roughly 30 degrees in the past 36 hours, the snow on Buckeye was generally moist and todays snow was dry, the stout melt freeze crust on Vail Pass was able to bridge the weight of skiers, and the Buckeye ridge is more susceptible to falling cornice. Regardless, with stiff mid-slabs and weak basal facets, both zones still have the potential for problems associated with deep slab instabilities.