Humphreys Cirque

Wind slabs today, but generally thin and stubborn. The weak basal facets and the facets under the January m/f crust may be the layers where (persistent slab) avalanches initiate in this next storm cycle. It seems possible (now) for a human to trigger an avalanche on these layers, likely in a thin area where the overlaying snow has developed into a stronger slab. The January m/f crust is less developed and harder to find on shady and northerly aspects. Coverage is improving, but the backcountry still has thin and bare spots.

Another moody day in The Cirque. Less wind today, but more developed wind slabs than yesterday morning. Wind slabs were generally thin and  stubborn, but they made the skiing less than ideal. The main attraction is a facet layer under a melt/freeze crust approximately 40-60cm below the snow surface. The m/f crust layer developed last week during the unseasonable warm temperatures of late January. This created a temperature gradient in the snowpack that metamorphosed the snow (under the m/f layer) into a weak faceted layer. We could not trigger this layer under our skis, but it constantly failed and propagated during instability tests.