Been out the past several days and it was nice to see the storm snow settling out yesterday, after the Christmas storm - which had density changes, inversions, and a poor interface on the 25th. I submitted an ob, but something happened and my text glitched out...

Today, I did observe an avalanche that broke within the storm snow halfway down from Santiago ridge, in between GB No and Barrieto. Looked to be skier triggered as I have a photo after the first skier skied the slope, and then following a lap on High Ivory and dropping into Mineral the second track was there, with evidence of a slide. Luckily they seemed to have pulled out before being taken through the cliffs below - hope all is ok.

Today, I wanted to get a sense of the snowpack in Mineral Fork, which is a special and sometimes a spooky place. Like Gagne has mentioned I too have been stepping out in terms of terrain with the guidance of digging a lot of hasty pits, probing for deeper snowpacks and avoiding thin spots, and also using aspect and old snow history.

At 9000' on a N/NE facing slope I found 150cm of snow in Mineral Fork. Hand hardness and facet photos are below.

Fist to 4F to 1F, then the decomposing crust roughly 30cm from the ground with 4F minus to Fist of facets below. The facets at this interface are dry and loose - shaking easily. They are 2-3mm in size and striations are easily observed without a microscope. The facets towards the bottom are getting damp. However they are not healing to the degree I observed elsewhere. The 150cm of snowpack is good, but I avoided the rockier and thinner zones here, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some big slides in Mineral once we receive another big load.

Lastly, and more of a soap box moment of safety. It's super great to see people digging down and looking at snow. But, please fill in your pits.

Our group found a pit towards the bottom of High Ivory with no attempt of filling it in (photo below), and it was just behind a small roll in which someone could of crashed into. We stomped it in.