Vail & Summit County

Temperatures in the teens quickly warmed up to near freezing. No wind and scattered clouds.

I dug a pit on an east-facing slope at the upper end of the below treeline elevation band. I found the most recent snow forming a soft slab above a crust formed in December. Below the crust were 2mm faceted grains - the primary layer of concern. The basal facet layer here did not have any depth hoar, and it was moist next to the ground. While skinning around the area, on a slightly more northerly-facing slope, I got cracking around the whole slope (albeit a small one), but I didn't hear any collapsing. Otherwise, there were no signs of instability. Snowpit tests showed that the slab was too soft to transmit the failure and cause propagating results in my Extended Column Test or a result to the end of the column in my Propagation Saw Test. The basal facets seemed too small, dense, and moist to be a problematic layer in this particular spot. When I dug down on the northeast-facing slope, I couldn't find the crust anymore, but the layer of facets in the middle of the snowpack was still there. In a quick pit on the southeast-facing side of this slope, the height of snow was about 20 to 30cm less and the crust was thicker and harder.