Fishhook

This is the thinnest snowpack and snow coverage I have seen in this area in late December. 

I found a snowpack that is similar to that in much of our area: a dense, 60+cm slab of snow rests over a pile of very weak facets. This layer was easy to identify with pole probes on shaded slopes. In my pit at 7,800' I found a slab that graded from F to 1F- in the upper half, and 1F- to P- in the lower half. This setup produced ECTPV x 2, CPST 21/100 and 23/100 both to END, and ECTP22. All of these failed on the top of the 11/30 interface, down 60cm. This is the densest slab I've found in our forecast area thus far, warm ambient temperatures weem to have helped promote slab settlement and consolidation, but have done little to affect the weak layer in areas like this. Despite the unstable snowpack test results, I did not observe any cracking or collapsing of the snowpack. This was due to the nature of the overlying slab, which makes impacting the weak layer more difficult.