Cathers Mitt

I found generally good travel conditions in this typically windy area of the pass.  A variety of wind-affected surfaces allowed for quick uphill travel and were carvable on the way down. There was little evidence of avalanche activity related to the 12/1 weak layer on lower Catcher Mitt,  since this area was mostly stripped to the ground before the big storm. However, across the road, I could see an impressive number of old avalanches at low elevation due to the sensitive 12/1 rain crust/facet combo. 

No signs of instability.

 I found large surface hoar up to 1cm+ in diameter near the road up to 2700 feet.  A rain crust from the last storm also went from road level to a similar elevation. In lower elevations, the rain crust was a sandwich of 2 crusts with a couple centimeter of loose faceted snow between. Surface hoar on a crust-facet-crust sandwich could create a concerning weak layer when buried by new snow. Fotunately, this scenario is only found in limited terrain close to the road.  

Elevations above 2700 feet consisted of chalky wind-affected snow surfaces, including sastrugi and various unreactive windslabs 10-20cm thick. A test pit dug at 3200ft in an area with a 2meter deep snowpack produced no concerning test results. 85cm of well-bonded settled storm snow was found on top of 10 cm-thick December windslabs with a meter of faceted snow underneath. Facets appeared to be rounding and losing their sharp edges, but it will take time for this weak snow to gain strength.