Vail & Summit County
SnowpackAndrew McWilliams · Dec 24, 2022 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Broken skies with light to moderate winds from the northwest. Light snow with no accumulation while I was out.
Snowpack
The snow was supportable to skis with momentum. When you stopped it wasn't full trapdoor, but you weren't fully supported. The snowpack on these lower elevation northerly slopes was 80cm deep at the top of the below treeline elevation band - 11,400ft. Snow height diminished around 10,500ft to 60 to 45cm. There was about 5cm of new snow on top of four-finger decomposing fragments 10cm thick. The slab consists of the fragment layer and two layers of facets that are fist and four-finger hard for a thickness of about 35cm. There was an additional 35cm of large basal facets to the ground. On steep test slopes, I was unable to move any loose snow but didn't want to get too low on the slope and it's possible I could have started a small ski-width loose sluff with more effort.