Went for a short walkabout this afternoon as skies began to break in Upper Big Cottonwood canyon today via Guardsman Pass Trailhead. Although slowly, travel conditions are improving with the small recent shots of snow. We avoided moving on, through and under avalanche terrain today with the goal of assessment and enjoying a nice walk in the woods.

We took a look beneath things on a NE slope at 9,300'. Upon digging, we found stronger snow at the ground than expected. In the mid-pack about 50cm down, we cued in on a problematic weak layer that has been noted elsewhere throughout the range (see Cody Hughes observation from yesterday found here). We had propagation in our pit on our the second tap from the wrist, on a facet/crust/facet sandwich - we did not produce results at the ground.

The crew is continuing to avoid avalanche terrain where these problems exist, as any ride in an avalanche will be compounded by trauma as the conditions are thin, and still in early season form. The best skiing and riding exists away from the avalanche hazard, on mellow angle grassy slopes free of stumps rocks and downed trees. These little storms have been poking at the avalanche dragon and all we need is a good dump of precip, and things will be full-on.