A persistent weak layer of faceted snow exists about 2 feet below the snow surface. Over the past two weeks it has produced widespread collapsing, a few natural avalanches, and continuously reactive stability tests. In our travels on Friday, Dave and I observed the first signs that this weak layer is gaining strength in some areas. This does not mean we are out of the woods. On the contrary, it means that things are about to get more tricky. When outward signs of instability such as collapsing and whumphing are in our face, the danger is obvious. When they aren't present, it can give us a false sense of security. As far as faceted weak layers are concerned, they take a long time to heal. Areas where you are most likely to trigger a deep and dangerous avalanche are on slopes steeper than 30 degrees that face W-N-E-SE.
This profile is from a NE facing slope at 11,250'. The top few inches are soft snow that fell over the past week. The 4 finger to 1 finger slab is the rest of the snow that fell in January. The December drought layer is becoming more dense, and did not produce a failure. The 4 finger facet layer beneath is also gaining strength. The weakest snow remains near the ground where fist density facets can be found. An extended column test produced results of ECTP 30 at the top of this layer. What this tells us is that in deeper snowpack areas, it is becoming harder for the weight of a person to affect buried weak layers, but if they did, the avalanche would be deep and nearly to the ground. In shallower snowpack areas, it is easier to affect this buried weak layer, and human triggered avalanches are much more likely.