While trending towards dormancy, a persistent weak layer (PWL) of faceted, sugary snow still exists near the ground. In fact, it's the problem child that conspired with dense, heavy snow on top to produce avalanches through much of mid December into early January. Since then, the PWL has gained a lot of strength and it's unlikely that you'll trigger an avalanche on this layer. But remember... anything persistent in the snowpack doesn't magically heal overnight, it slowly strengthens over time, and that's exactly what we've been seeing throughout much of the range. And while unlikely, the recent avalanche Ted spotted Thursday in Mill Creek is a great reminder that this layer still exists, it can still produce an avalanche, and we definitely don't want to let our guard down.

What to do? We're not particularly concerned about this problem below treeline where the snowpack is deep and uniform. Steep, rocky terrain above treeline with a more variable snowpack is where I wanna be on my toes. Tee off with a little mini-golf and ride parts of a slope with the deepest snow, before committing to a steep, technical line, especially if you're threading the needle in rocky terrain. Always carry avalanche rescue gear, expose only one person at at time, and consider where a slide will take you even if you trigger a small piece of snow.