Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Bill H · Nov 8, 2015 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Sun, calm, temps approaching 50 deg F.

Snowpack

SW, W and NW aspects near TL, 40-60 cm snow from last storm cycle, highly variable coverage, skiable on favored aspects and terrain features with improved depths from wind loading. S and W aspects rapidly settling to less than 20 cm depths in the warm temps yesterday, melting and liquid H2O on surface snow. Skinning in T-shirts and dealing with wet skins and clumping snow made it feel more like a May tour than November. We experienced minor whumpfing and collapse of small persistent slabs (~10-20 m radius) that existed just on the leeward side of ridges at and above tree line. Did not not dig, but could feel a thin slab apprx 30cm down from surface with pole test . Probably old drifts from early Oct snow that survived to get covered in last week's storm cycle. Below treeline coverage thin, skiing in the upper bowls decent but mostly survival-skiing in or near the skin track back to the trailhead. On the plus side, we worked on our tans. On the down side, forgetting the post-tour trailhead beers = FNG move/early season fail.