Schuylkill Ridge

In wind-sheltered terrain where snow depths are less than about 90 cm (typically below ~10,000' here), I'm gaining more trust in the snowpack as the holiday slab continues to facet, weaken, and soften.  I'm more cautious above 10k where the holiday slab structure is denser (specifically where it hasn't flushed during the Christmas/New Year storm or got wind eroded last week.)  The slopes that flushed during Thanksgiving and again around New Year's have a facet sluff problem again in their shallow and weak snowpack, thus completing their circle of life back to square 1.  Snow surfaces were starting to get moist on southerlies today. 

On suspect NE/E aspects, I traveled mostly on a skin track that we set last week (with dozens of collapses), so unsurprisingly, I saw no signs of instability there today. The few slopes where I ventured away from the skin track didn't produce signs of instability. Skied steep SE/S aspects without any slab concerns but sluffing in the upper snowpack above the early January crust. Another group who broke trail further up valley reported some rumbling "remote collapses" when they reached the Schuylkill Bench, so I'll check the collapsing box on their behalf.