Quick report
While the persistent slab problem is still with us, our main concern for the next few days will be heavy wind loading. This will occur on the N-E-SE slopes of the mountain. I even observed moderate wind loading and drifting in and amongst the trees. Caution on wind loaded slopes, greater than 30 degrees, is highly advised, on the N-E-SE aspects. With that, the persistent weak layer still resides about halfway through the snowpack, still with the potential to be triggered remotely or in thinner spots in the snowpack. If one pushes that 30 degrees, it wouldn’t hurt to dig down a bit to see where that layer may be.
Snowpack
Snow depth in this area was 265cm deep. Test pit dug 140cm. There’s around 30-40 cm of new snow from the most recent storm. 3 layers of concern stand out; a layered in the upper 40-50cm has new snow plus areas of wind loaded snow sitting on top of near surface facets. The next layer is the Feb 10 layer which has a heavy slab, primarily made up of rounded, cohesive grains, sitting on top of a MFcr with rounding facets directly below. The final layer of concern is another, much deeper MFcr, again with faceted crystals directly below. No reaction, on this aspect to an Extended Column Test (ECTX) but there was reaction on the Propagation Saw Test(PST48/100END on the Feb 10 layer), meaning we can’t rule out a persistent slab avalanche problem yet.