Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Jan 24, 2022 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Clear skies, cold, calm winds in the morning. Clouds and winds increased later in the day. No snow transport.
Snowpack
I traveled on east to south-facing slopes near and below treeline. On southerly slopes I found a shallow snowpack from 70 to 100 cm deep. A weak layer of faceted snow sits 10 to 20 cm above the ground sandwiched between pencil hard snow at the ground and a harder slab on top. This layer showed propagating results in extended column tests (ECTP 22 and ECTP23). Although the tests indicate propagation potential, the snowpack is quite stable at the moment and this layer is unreactive for now.--- The upper snow is extremely weak, and this will be very concerning with a future load. The most worrisome upper snowpack structure I found was on east-southeast facing slopes. A layer of fist-hard facets sits between two collapsible melt-freeze crusts 10 to 15 cm from the surface. On a due south-facing slope near treeline slope the upper melt-freeze crust was much thicker (6 cm) and more supportable. Although very weak snow also sits below this crust, it would take a large load to affect beneath the stout crust.
Avalanche
None observed