After hearing through the avalanche forecast that the new snow was upside-down, and seeing that the storm started out slightly colder and warmed up a little (according to data from the CLN weather station), I was interested in investigating the reactivity of the new snow. A shovel tilt test showed that this layer exists in Mill D North, as a few taps were sufficient to get the top layer of snow to move on a flat plane. However, there is not enough new snow on the density inversion in Mill D to create a slab capable of sliding. I performed upwards of 10 mitt pit hand shear tests throughout the day and could not get a solid chunk of slab to move in any of them. However, in more orographically favored locations where more snow has fallen on the density inversion, I would expect a more cohesive slab and soft slab avalanches failing in the new snow (other obs from Grizzly Gulch confirm this). As shown in the snow profile below, the new snow is generally quite warm, so this should settle out fairly quickly. Tomorrow, I'll be gathering a lot of info on these soft slabs before I commit to skiing any avalanche terrain.

I was also interested in investigating the current state of our Jan-Feb facets, especially given that some observers have been hypothesizing that meltwater from last week's heat wave could've percolated into the facets and frozen, locking them up. In this relatively shallow location in Mill D, the top layer facets were very large, up to 3mm with obvious cupped depth hoar and some striated crystals in the upper part of the facet layer. There were ice columns in the top of the facet layer, indicating that percolating meltwater did flow through, but not nearly enough liquid water froze to provide any stability, as confirmed by an ECTP21. The facet layer here is so thick that I suspect it would take a substantial amount of melting to lock anything up. However, there is good news- the temperature gradient observed in the facets is well within the range to promote rounding. Moreover, other than the large cupped crystals at the top of the facet layer, the rest of the facets appear to have begun the rounding process. This sent me a pretty clear message- conditions are not currently safe, but may become so within the next few weeks.