Banner Area

A variety of surface conditions exist around Banner, ranging from stout crusts on due south-facing slopes to soft, unconsolidated weak snow in sheltered terrain and stiff wind board in some areas. Shady slopes near 8,000' harbored the deepest snowpack (3-4 feet), while solar slopes were a bit shallower (2-3'). I saw no signs of instability, and the only recent wet snow avalanches observed were in isolated, craggy terrain and were very small in size.

Surface conditions were variable near 8,000' depending on the aspect and where the wind had blown snow around:

• Due south, a generous 1 inch (2-3 cm) of recent snow rests above a 2 cm thick crust (from the around Jan. 16th warm-up), with some near-surface faceting at the interface. The upper portions of the snowpack below this crust are unconsolidated and faceted. The thickness of the crust quickly tapers as you approach SE and SW-facing slopes. Surface snow on lower-angle (~30 degrees in steepness) solar slopes was moist but not wet. There is about 2-3 feet of snow on the ground on S, SW, and SE-facing terrain near 8,000'. 
• On N and NE-facing slopes, a trace to an inch of snow rests above a stiff wind board in wind-drifted areas, with faceted snow below. On sheltered slopes, I found pockets of intact and upright surface hoar (SH) up to 8 mm near the surface just below the most recent snowfall. Similar to other slopes traveled, the upper portion (~25 cm) of the snowpack is an unconsolidated pile of facets (F-). From the bottom up, the snowpack is generally right-side-up. Mid-December weak layers still exist as a thin layer of 2 mm facets, but were unreactive in stability tests (ECTX, HS:160).