The snowpack is now isothermal, and we’re simply waiting on a solid overnight refreeze to lock things back up. In this profile, meltwater has percolated to roughly 50 cm below the surface. The upper portion of the basal facet layer is slightly moist, while the lower portion remains dry. At the base of the pack, facets and depth hoar are rounding but still dry. There isn’t much of a cohesive slab at this location.
My concern shifts to areas in the alpine where more developed slabs exist. In this pit, the faceted layers have weakened with the introduction of meltwater and are now quite loose. If capped by a more cohesive slab, these layers could still fail and produce an avalanche. Wet slab avalanches remain possible, though the terrain where they are most likely continues to shrink.
I remain most suspicious of large, well-connected slopes near and above treeline. I’ll continue to carry concern until we see several consecutive nights of below-freezing temperatures in the mountains.
