In the short term we are still looking at high and considerable danger. But for the long term, we may be turning a corner, especially on slopes with a deeper snowpack. Today on a North facing slope at 10,630 ft, we found the buried facets below 140 cm of snow with a stiff 1F slab above. HS 180 cm. A Deep Tap test produced a DT28 BRK. (That is a non planar, irregular fracture on 28 taps). The faceted layer has gained some hardness. The upper part of the facets are 4F-, while the bottom half of the weak layer is now 4F. Faceted grains are still 2mm in size. It would appear the weak layer has gained some strength on slopes with a deep pack. I still have concern for areas with a more shallow snowpack like windward slopes and the southerlies. On these slopes the buried facets are not as deep and will not be gaining strength the same way we saw in our pit today. As the storm quiets down and we get some vis, it will be interesting to see what if any avalanche activity occurred during the most recent loading event.

We observed light snow transport today. On Sunday I observed strong Southerly winds and a lot of blowing and drifting snow above treeline. These drifts will be stiff and stubborn, but it will still be possible to trigger an avalanche on recently wind loaded slopes.