The combined weight of yesterday's storm, last Thursday's storm, and a few other smaller ones last week is about 3 inches of snow water equivalent. Half of this weight fell in yesterday's storm. I'm honestly not sure how widespread or how reactive the persistent slab avalanche problem will be. What I do know is:
- Facets are very easy to find in the snowpack especially on NW, N, and NE facing slopes (see the two photos below). Some faceted layers can be found on E and W aspects.
- The snowpack was just loaded and these faceted layers have been stressed.
- There were two notable avalanches yesterday that broke in old snow (see above in "Recent Activity").
The best way to avoid this problem is ride southerly facing slopes. The good news is that the snowpack is getting deeper and this helps it get stronger over time. The other good news is that clouds and cold weather will help maintain great snow conditions on southerly aspects.
Photo below shows facets near the bottom of the snowpack and they are easy to see by the dark horizontal line where this column fractured.
The next photo shows an ice crust (horizontal stripe) with some faceted snow that is just under the snow that fell on Thursday. This layer may have been the one responsible for yesterday's avalanche near Alexander Basin.