We've spent the last few weeks touring heavily in the upper Cardiff, Days, Silver Fork and (today) Mineral Fork drainages. Snow depths on north and east aspects above 9,500ft range from 40-75cm. West aspects range from 5-30cms and south's only have the most recent snow storm covering bare ground. Price of admission is pretty high right now. Exits require a fair amount of insanity and a pair of skis you really hate.

Cold nights over the last week have really started to weaken the snowpack. The snow in upper mineral fork is the worst amongst the drainages we have skied in. In Mineral we observed two crusts around 15cm and 40cm from the ground at 10,500ft. Both crusts have a good amount of dry and loose faceted snow above and below the crusts. We have seen this same setup in the other drainages but the facets were not as prominent or as dry and loose. However it has gotten weaker and weaker with each day we have been out. Because there isn't currently much of a slab, the weak layers are not reactive in stability tests. Things are mostly stable for now, but once a slab forms on top of these weak layers it will be game on. With more cold nights in the future and a lack of significant snow forecasted, this problem is likely going to continue to get worse.