Mark Staples showing a snowpit with a poor snowpack structure. The profile and photo are below. There's still a persistent weak layer present, but (1) no recent avalanches, (2) no collapsing or cracking, (3) no recent snow, (4) no wind loading, (5) stability test scores have been rising and this one didn't even break. The only red flag is the structure which is a cohesive slab on top of a weak layer of facets....they have adjusted to the load on top of them. They are generally dormant, but could certainly come to live with a another large storm.

Mark and I decided to check out what a bed surface looked like. Our suspicions were confirmed that the snowpack is much shallower and more prone to faceting in shallower areas. We will want to keep an eye on slopes that avalanched during the first week of December.

These slopes (and there are many of them) have very shallow snow and are being exposed to wicked cold temperatures at night. Even today when the air was 31 degrees F, the snow surface on a NE facing slope was 15 degrees F. In these areas with thin snow (because they avalanches), there is a large temperature gradient faceting the entire snowpack.