Early morning tour to Catherine's area and I was interested in seeing if the fresh wind deposits were sensitive, and how reactive the early October faceted layer is to the nearly 1 inch of water weight and drifting. Overall was finding the wind slabs were not reactive to any stability tests or ski cuts. The wind drifted snow can mostly be found on NE - SE aspects, although there was much cross loading as well. Drifts were found well down off of ridge lines as well. The early October faceted layer is easy to identify, and on a few quick pits I was unable to isolate a column 45 cm (1.5') in height that failed in the facets down near the ground. I did not get any collapsing on suspect northerly slopes, but my partner did get a localized collapse on a NE aspect.

I did get a view of the slide reported by Hardesty/Kobernik on the NE aspect near Rocky Point, but otherwise saw no natural or skier triggered activity. The feeling I came away with this morning was that the probability of triggering a slide on the faceted layer was generally Unlikely, but the consequences could be nasty. In addition, persistent weak layers are notoriously difficult to assess and manage, so even though I had few signs of a cranky snowpack (cracking, collapsing, etc) you have to focus on the poor snowpack structure. Judging by the number of travelers I saw heading in when we were exiting late morning, there will be plenty of slope testers this afternoon, and combined with any work done at the resorts, we should have a much better idea of the stability by the end of the day Sunday.