Quick report
Toured to Swift Creek and rode a few runs on SE and E aspects in the trees of Swift Creek drainage. No significant signs of instability there, aside from rider-triggered dry loose on steeper slopes. Observed less snowfall than the weather forecast predicted, as well as tapering winds throughout the day. Cloud base rose and fell and rose again throughout the day, hovering between ~4600 and 5200 ft, leading to varying visibility between poor and very poor. No natural avalanche activity was observed, though the low visibility may have contributed to this. Pole probing and hand shear tests revealed a new crust layer 20-35 cm beneath newly deposited snow that must have formed in the evening of Jan. 8 or early in the morning hours of Jan. 9. We dug a test pit (total snow depth 310 cm) above Martha's ladder at ~5000' on a 29 deg. N aspect at around 2:30 pm. The 1/8 crust was 30 cm deep, and the 12/30 crust was around 160 cm. Shovel shear tests showed a mid-planar shear on a mid-storm layer 25 cm deep within the storm slab, notably above the new crust. CTM18, with a resistant planar fracture 50 cm deep. ECTX. Aggressive slope cuts on 40-45 degree N and NE slopes yielded dry loose sluff, but did not reveal any slab instability. We rode out cautiously down into Bagley Basin (near 10 minute trees), carefully managing terrain. Overall, snowpack instability on the slopes we rode and tested seemed to be lower than predicted.