Camel Humps above Copper Creek

The snowpack is extraordinarily reactive below treeline on flat slopes and colder aspects. Sensitively appears to decrease but slabs become larger and harder as you gain elevation. Pick your poison.  There are plenty of slopes at higher elevations with obvious thin areas from wind effects or Thanksgiving avalanche activity where I suspect you can trigger a persistent slab.  Our antidote was traveling on low slope angles or steeper southerly aspects where the snowpack structure didn't appear to be problematic.  

Slabs below treeline are about 18", mostly 4F hard and produce constant collapses.  Near treeline, slabs are more often 1F and around 2' thick, and total snowdepth is typically around a meter deep, but with plenty of variability from winds and previous avalanche activity.  On south aspects above treeline, the holiday slab was most often wind eroded and there's a few inches of faceting recent snow over the Christmas crust.  In more protected features that still held the slab, a couple of hand pits suggested the slab was bonding to the Christmas crust without any obvious weak layers.  Probing into a few steep, east facing slopes near treeline revealed a shallower snowpack than in flat terrain and an untrustworthy snowpack structure. I stomped at and ski cut one small feature without any feedback. We avoided bigger slopes.