Toured in Porter Fork today, covering quite a bit of ground on most aspects, but primarily NE through NW slopes. Dug five quick pits in various areas and frequently probed for snow depth to try to get a sense of where it could be possible to trigger an avalanche on the persistent weak layer. Surface faceting continues to weaken surface snow. In one pit (8,800 feet, NNE facing sheltered terrain) in an area with a snow depth of 85cm almost the top half of the snowpack was faceted and the thick slab from the December 2-3rd storm was beginning to break down.

The weakest snow we found was in a NW facing pit at 9500 feet. Snow depth here was 95 cm, likely on the shallower side from wind transport. Weak snow was about 20cm from the ground and still felt very dry and uncohesive, although it was not reactive in an extended column test. We were able to get a clean shear prying the slab off with a shovel with moderate force.

In deeper snowpack areas (N facing, 9400 feet) with snow depths of 125 cm we still found the faceted snow but it seemed to be getting more cohesive and gaining strength.

Only evidence of past avalanches was buried debris likely from 2 weeks ago in the middle part of Gary's Gully and a small dry loose avalanche that seemed recent that was likely triggered by a rider who skied or rode down the Raymond slabs lookers right of Piece of Pie. We experienced some minor sluffing of the surface snow, something to be aware of on steep north facing slopes with poor runouts.

Lots of spatial variability out there especially with the recent wind loading from the east wind event earlier this week.