Vail & Summit County
SnowpackScott Toepfer · Apr 20, 2011 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Clouds gradually decreased through the day. At times there were strong southerly winds that were just strong enough to move snow over to the east face from the south side. Temperatures were fairly mild, even at the summit.
Snowpack
Try this again. For some reason my 1st report vanished into cyber black hole. SE aspect to gain ridge had 2" Hn with a 3" MF crust that was not all that solid. Under the MF crust was a couple feet of moist to wet unconsolidated garbage. East ridge had the same scenario tho the crust was stouter, and the underlying snow was moist, not wet. The southerly winds had built a 1 to 2 foot deep wind slab onto the east face, tho the slab did not extend far into the bowl. There was some cracking, but no propagation. Around 1 PM on the ski out we went to a NE aspect. The crust was become less stout with the daytime heating, but still supportable. I would have concerns for triggered wet slide activity from around 3 PM and later.