While working at Monument Ranch today, I investigated the upper snowpack instabilities. We anticipated the main avalanche concerns to be new snow instabilities and wind-drifted snow, however, evidence of either was scarce. The new snow seemed to be bonding well with the old snow surface, no cracking or collapsing was observed. While cornices were developing and quite large, slopes were not being actively loaded. Counterintuitive, but that's what we observed. Stability tests showed cracking at the new/old snow interface and within density changes during the storm snow from Jan. 10th but did not propagate in ECTs.

I did not dig to the November facet layer because we know where it lies (W-N-E all elevations) and we know it is stubborn buried more than 1.5 meters deep. It's still on the board, however, as a step-down potential exists with any avalanche in the upper snowpack, and with any major loading event. Things are looking up, but it's not quite the time for open-season objectives.