Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Mar 2, 2017 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Mostly clear skies with a cold northwesterly wind at ridgetop. The wind seemed to pick up in the afternoon with gusts in the thirties. No snow was being transported where I was at, or any of the higher peaks.

Snowpack

A lot less recent storm snow in the eastern portion of the Vail and Summit zone. Settled storm snow depth is 6 inches or less...Although the upper snowpack is complex and of generally poor structure, especially on east, southeast, and south, there is not much of a slab on top of these facet and crust layers...North and easterly aspects are still suspect for Wind Slab avalanches, even with the thin slab, due to the hardness of the slab and potential for wider propagation...On a north-facing below treeline slope, I again found a layer of surface hoar. This buried surface hoar layer is about 40cms from the surface. Snowpack test results on this layer were ECTP15, ECTN15, and PST 30/100 END...The bottom line is- The structure of the upper snowpack will cause us future Persistent Slab avalanche problems when the next strong storm arrives.