Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Brent Herring · Mar 6, 2019 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Increasing sky cover. Some sun giving way to completely overcast. Temperature around 35 deg BTL at 10K to mid 20s ATL at 12.5K. Winds highly variable out of the WNW. Calm BTL and NTL, sustained at 15mph ATL, gusts near 30 at 12.5K. Visibility decreasing over the Tenmile.

Snowpack

Snow surface saturated below 11K even on shaded, north aspects. Still possible to make snowballs NTL at 11.5K. ATL the wind was keeping the surface snow cold. Variable wind crust and sasrugi in the NE bowl of the nipple. Punchy, thin <5cm pencil hard crust down low ATL overlying lower density old snow; thicker, chalky supportable crust up high. Ample wind transport evident ATL. Wind slabs appeared to be growing.