Exec. Director Chad Brackelsberg stomped around mid Weber Canyon over the weekend, finding mostly stable snow and great riding conditions. In the video above, Chad describes his findings whilst conducting a Propagation Saw Test (PST). His results as well as our collective observations and lack of avalanche activity suggest we're shifting towards more stable snowpack characteristics, but still remain in the "low probability/high consequence" realm. An oldie, but a goodie, Trent explains how to set up and interpret this test.

We're moving in the right direction and trending towards a snowpack becoming happy in its own skin as the persistent weak layer (PWL) of faceted, old, sugary snow near the ground slowly adjusts to the big December storms. However, let's not forget... a tremendous amount of dense, heavy, water laden snow piled up on a pre-existing fragile, shaky base and we can't take our eyes off the prize. Sure, all of the snow since Christmas is a good thing that eventually heals this weak layer, but it doesn't happen overnight. Indeed, things are calming down, avalanche activity isn't off the charts, and it's been nearly a week since any significant slides have been reported. But the big red flag is that last weeks avalanches continue breaking on our early season problem child or, in snow-geek-speak... persistent weak layer (PWL). So, while conditions are slowly improving, I'd continue steering clear of any steep, rocky, wind drifted slope, especially those facing the north half of the compass, that harbor old October snow.

For now what makes this layer dangerous is:

Here's the good news - This layer doesn't exist on south facing slopes which have excellent coverage, and soft creamy powder.