Quick report
Was working on my list of places that I would not trust when we get our next load of snow, today I put West Monitor at the top of the list. Dug a hole on the E-NE facing part of the bowl about 60ft down off the ridge line where I"ve seen avalanches rip out more times than I can count, you can see from the pit and the video that there is about 18 inches of snow in the starting zone, working from the top down, new snow, wind slab, and a whole lot of large grain loose facets in the bottom 5 or 6 inches at the ground. These facets were NOT damp like in other pits I've dug recently, and I would not trust the wind slab as a bridge at this point, it seemed to be breaking down, and I would punch through it now and then while skiing. Doesn't matter right now, no load but when we get a decent storm something to keep in the back of your mind. Macdonalds seemed to have a better snow pack it was deeper and the facet layer was not as pronounced, thinking the reason it was deeper is that the wind doesn't strip the starting zone like it does in West Monitor, deeper snow pack more stable, shallow snow pack weaker. Photos, sluffing in steeper terrain, snow pit in West Monitor, location of pit about 10 turns in right by the lookers left of tracks, creamy snow on low angle south facing, cloud deck in LCC in the afternoon, video showing the faceted base layer.
Snowpack
Powder on the surface seems like It's heading in the faceting direction. Sun angle is so low that the low angle south facing is still soft and creamy, melt freeze crust on steeper south facing.