Quick morning outing to Twin Lakes pass. On Sunday I was finding the basal facets reactive to stability tests, and on Tuesday, Mark and Evelyn got a big collapse in the same area. I went back this morning to see how the basal facets were reacting as the slab strengthens. If you dig to the ground on upper elevation northerly aspects you can find the weak facets at the ground - it is a shallow layer (5-10 cms / 2-4") and it does seem to be compressing somewhat under the weight of the recent storm snow. Whereas on Sunday I got an energetic full propagation on my ECT, today both compression and ECT could not produce any failures. At best I was getting Q3 shovel shears at the interface on the Thanksgiving Eve storm and the Sunday storm.

Overall I am finding the snowpack to be looking particularly good at the moment. It is turning into a 4F slab with only storm snow weaknesses as interfaces, and these will continue to heal pretty quickly.

The basal facets were reactive with one natural as well explosive control work in upper LCC on Tuesday, and they don't heal that quickly, so still a concern. As the slab above strengthens, it will allow people to get into steeper terrain, and this is where deep slabs can really get us into trouble as we can get well out onto a slab before the avalanche releases. My hunch is that this is becoming increasingly unlikely, but with significant consequences if you trigger a deep slab avalanche. For the time being, the skiing is excellent on all aspects and I am content riding all of the terrain other than steep, upper elevation northerly.