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I traveled through a lot of fresh snow, the only signs of instability I experienced/observed were in sheltered middle elevation around 7,000-7,500'. Here, I found a layer of standing surface hoar buried 16" down that produced unstable snowpack test scores and triggered collapses that extended up to~50 feet from the triggering location. This seemed to be a drainage phenomenon, with the moisture for the surface hoar provided by a nearby creek. I did not experience these collapses or see surface hoar in hand pits throughout the rest of my tour. I did not encounter any unstable wind slabs today, though I was seeking out sheltered terrain for ski quality. There is a lot of uncertainty around the 1/1 weak layer and around what the warm, humid, maritime weather between 1/1 and 1/3 did to the weak snow that was developing at the surface during the closing high pressure of 2025. I'm seeing this as an indication that the weak layer may be buried intact well down into middle elevation terrain. Something to pay attention to as snow piles up.

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