Vail & Summit County
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Mar 5, 2024 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Skies were obscured for most of the day. It was mostly dry with a brief snow shower at times. Winds were still transporting snow at ridgetop. I found 12 inches of recent storm snow. This is less than I expected to find as Beaver Cr reported 29 inches of snow with this storm and Vail reported 22 inches. It seems these deeper totals are further north and closer to I-70.
Snowpack
My first snowpit was on an east-facing slope at 11,000 ft (upper end of below treeline). I found a snowpack 145 cm deep. I got results of ECTP10 on facets between two crusts 34 cm from the surface. The snow above this propagating test has settled into a four-finger hard slab. I also got results of ECTP11 at 67 cm from the surface. This propagating crack was in faceted crystals on top of a firm melt-freeze crust. The snow is hard below this layer and I didn't test deeper layers. My second snowpit was on an east-facing slope at 11,600 ft (near treeline). The snowpack structure and snow height were very similar. I got propagating results on the same layers but it took more force. It's always a bit tricky to interpret ECT scores as we cut out the strength of the crusts, but with other evidence such as recent avalanches and collapsing, I would say it's possible to trigger avalanches on these layers. I briefly poked around on some southeast-facing slopes and the crusts were much harder and thicker. It would be more difficult to trigger avalanches on the Feb 2 layer on southeast-facing slopes, and I suspect avalanches would break on the upper layer beneath the new snow. For surface conditions- southeast-facing surface snow got moist and will likely have a surface crust on Wednesday. East-facing generally stayed cool.