Observation: Lower Weber Drainage

After the rain let up and started to switch to snow around 10:30 I headed up to 10k to see what the snow was doing. There was about 10 inches of new snow that has fallen since our partly sunny day, Thursday. The Wednesday storm finished off with 6 inches of smoke on top of a dense skier supportive layer. That smoke made for the best ski day of the year but is now the weak snow that failed ECTP 6 SC Q1 in my stability tests. Although the test was very repeatable, pushing on steep entrances zones from a safe place above produced no results. It seems there is propagation, but the energy released during the collapse of the new snow is not enough to overload the planar friction. In other words, the snow is connected and collapsing on a weak layer but it’s not able to run down the slope, yet. It needs more weight. The PWL is now sitting around 45 cm above the ground. In most places this layer is at ground rubble level and not necessarily a major issue. That was certainly the case where I dug, in and around large firs. Open grassy terrain is another story and I am still avoiding that type of terrain on the north and east half of the compass.