Rounding faceted grains under the New Year's wind crust.

ECT results.

Old avalanche activity on a steep east facing slope.

Lots of cracking on the exposed ridges and in wind affected terrain.

Wind blowing snow out of the trees well below the rideline.

Wind started cranking by early afternoon and it looks like they're supposed to keep it up with this next storm. Wind loading and new snow should start another natural avalanche cycle. Wind speeds on Windy Peak have been getting progressively stronger by the hour.

My pit tests today were similar to what I've been experiencing lately in my other pits. The new snow/old snow interface is weak and then there area series of weaknesses down to the New Year's wind crust persistent weakness. Two of my column test failed with moderate effort all the way down to the December snow. Today was the first time I actually got propagation across the column in my extended column test. This was also in the December snow about 100 cm's down (about 40").

Not much new to report but with more snow and wind, new wind slabs will develop and also, the deep persistent weaknesses should also come to life again. I would imagine we'll go through another natural avalanche cycle and the slopes that don't slide will be waiting for a trigger. I'm speaking of slopes in the wind zone for the most part.

I've been contemplating our snowpack setup and thinking about the impact a skier or snowboarder has on the snowpack compared to a snowmachine. I don't think skiers or boarders are immune to the deep persistent weaknesses in the snowpack but I am thinking a snowmachine is more likely to penetrate the weaknesses in the pack and collapse a slope. By no means do I think if you're on skis you're not going to set off an avalanche on a deep persistent weakness in our current snowpack setup but I think you are more apt to tickle the dragon on a snowmachine. As our snowpack gets deeper and my pit tests get more stubborn it's just something I've been thinking about lately. Mostly just "thinking out loud".