Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAustin DiVesta · Jan 19, 2022 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Fairly cold start to the morning then warmed up to a pleasant temperatures for the rest of the day. Light winds from the west and increasing clouds towards the afternoon.
Snowpack
We continue to not see any signs of instabilities in the snowpack. While the snowpack has settled out a lot, there is still poor structure. On a northeast aspect near treeline, we found snow height varying from 185cm then over six feet, it was 140cm. Our group split up to dig a couple of pits and one group observed extended column tests (ECT) did not produce any results, but the propagation saw tests continue to result in crack initiation all the way through the weak layer (PST 42/120 END). Another group dug on a northeast aspect about a quarter-mile away which produced moderate to hard ECT results. This demonstrates spatial variability within our snowpack, while the snow heights are similar the structure towards the ground changes slightly.