We rode in the Tony Grove area today and found great settled powder conditions. We rode south, east, and North facing aspects and all are still holding good snow. The only exception are areas that have been affected by the wind (which is extensive) or have previously avalanched. There is evidence of many avalanches during the storm but most of the crowns and debris piles have filled in. There have been a few recent cornice fall avalanches at the south end of Cornice Ridge and on the South Ridge of Mt. Magog. The cornice falls set off small slab avalanches but were both only 50ish feet wide and ran several hundred feet.

We performed several pit tests on a North facing slope at around 9000 feet. The slope angle was about 30 degrees and the total depth of the snowpack in the area was about 60 inches. Shear tests revealed a very consolidated and cohesive snowpack… at least the top 3 ½ feet of the snowpack. Below the 3-4 foot slab is the nasty faceted snow we will be dealing with for a while. Compression tests had failures a 26 and 27 hits. The column failed in the faced layer around a foot from the ground. We could not get any failures on the Extended Column Test, ECTX.

The slab is so thick and solid that it will be difficult to trigger an avalanche. But, if you do happen to trigger one from a shallow area it will be devastating.