Today my partner and I found some weak snow in the mid portion of the snowpack that produced a small collapse or "whoomp" of the snowpack. We were on a 30 degree east facing slope at about 10,000'. The weak layer was small grain "near surface facets" (sugar snow) that formed during a dry period in mid December. These sugary grains are now buried by the Christmas and New Year's storms. In most places I've been looking, this layer has not been reactive nor have I experienced any collapsing. This is the first time I've seen this layer be a concern. Time will tell but hopefully this type of situation that we stumbled onto is more "pockety" in nature rather than a widespread issue. The concern is how this layer will react to anticipated additional snow from storms next week.

The image below is a photo of what the snow grains in the weak layer look like. You can see the corners which gives it it's "sugary" appearance. This type of snow grain doesn't bond well to it's neighboring grains which makes it loose. Over time, it will eventually bond to it's neighbors and the layer will strengthen but often it can take a long time. This is what we call a "Persistent Weak Layer". At this point this layer is not all that alarming. I could see it giving us some trouble with future snow storms and I could also see it not being too much of an issue. The bottom line is that we know it's there and will keep a close eye on it.