Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

After being out for a week this is what I have seen. Spx: I had an ECTX and CTN on a straight South aspect at 11,200. The snowpack looked like April. The facets at the ground seemed to be fairly cohesive and less than 2mm in size. HS was 142. Slope was 26 degrees. I dug in Black lakes over the weekend and found similar results on a NNE aspect at 10,900. We were getting some failures within the top third of the snowpack but nothing consistent and the failures were mostly Q3 with one Q2. We had 4 pits going in roughly that same area all with inconsistent results and several CTN findings. However, the facets at the ground were more advanced but hard to trigger due to the dense layers of snow in the middle of the pack. HS was 155cm and slope angle around 22. Obx: Widespread surface hoar living and surviving on West slopes. Near surface facets hanging out where its cold. Wx: Lots of sun with very little wind at least on the pass and in the gore the last 3 days. I was on Outpost Peak (12,363) between pitkin and booth creeks and the wind was less than 10mph at best. Avx: Saw a slide on the backside of Bald Mountain yesterday. Not sure when i happened. It was hard to see in the shade but Id say North facing, natural, R2D2?