Small Creek

Toured up Small creek to look for instabilities within the new snow, check for wind loading, and to track the 1/26 Buried Surface Hoar layer. Winds were light and instabilities were not found within the new snow. The major issue right now and going forward is the Persistent Slab problem. Test slopes showed that there is potential to cause an avalanche on this layer which is now buried 20" deep and deeper at upper elevations. This layer was easily found throughout our tour from 1600 ft to 3800 ft. We mitigated the danger by staying out of avalanche terrain and enjoying low angle powder.