The Hurley is delivering

Another great day on the Hurley; excellent riding conditions were found. Our inspections of the deep persistent slab problem took us to Lone Goat today. We dug in the alpine around 2200 m on a northeast aspect and found the layer of concern down about 125 cm with a snowpack depth of 185 cm (being pointed at in the one photo). In general, it seems that the layer is typically in the lower 1/2 to 3/4 of the snowpack. There were rounded facets around a 1 cm thick crust but a deep tap test produced no result. Overall, the profile was confidence-inspiring for that particular area. Our suspicion is that at least where we were, it would require a major storm to reactive this layer, and perhaps even that wouldn't do it. Otherwise, we observed evidence of very large avalanches in almost all paths from the wet storm last week, many taking down trees (see photo). There was evidence of more recent wind slabs and cornice failures but from at least a few days ago. From our observations, it appears that all the recent snow is bonding well.