The weak layer of faceted snow buried on December 9th was not hard to find. Whether tests were reactive or not depended on the slab. In places where the snow wasn't drifted, the snow was soft and I got no signs of instability or propagation in tests. In drifted places, I got easy propagating results, shooting cracks, and small collapses.

Corral Creek and Officers Gulch near Vail Pass

I saw one small, fresh, slab avalanche on a southeast-facing slope. I also several cornice fall avalanches above Lost Lake. Interestingly these avalanches did not trigger any persistent slab avalanches. I also walked above steep east-facing terrain, thinking I may remotely trigger an avalanche, but no luck.

The snowpack is about 90 to 100 cm deep on northerly slopes. On northerly slopes that weren't drifted, I found 16 cm of soft non-cohesive recent snow sitting on a very weak layer of faceted snow buried on December 9th. I found broken and knocked-down surface hoar crystals within the layer, but I did not see a layer of standing-up surface hoar. On a northwest-facing slope at 11,200 ft, the snowpack was 94 cm deep and I got a result of ECTN3 on the December 9th layer. I didn't get any results on deeper layers and in fact, it's hard to pick out a deeper layer of concern. The mid-pack and bottom of the pack are composed of faceted crystals but the snow crystals are sintering and showing signs of strength. An avalanche higher in the snowpack may be able to gouge into these faceted crystals as it runs, but it is hard to see a specific lower layer where a crack can be initiated and propagate through that layer.

I also dug on an east-facing drifted near treeline slope. This aspect/elevation is the bullseye for slab development over a really weak snow layer. It was easy to see just digging before I set up any tests. The bottom of the recently drifted slab is one-finger hard tying it together across terrain features. I got easy propagating results in an ECT and also collapsing and shooting cracks. As I descended and moved to a southeast-facing slope, I continued to get collapsing and cracking. This was interesting as the slab was generally softer. This southeast-facing slope was the only place I found surface hoard standing up. There was a small layer of surface hoar on top of a melt-freeze crust 20 cm from the surface.

Mostly clear, windy at ridgetop. Winds were still finding snow to move. It wasn't widespread drifting, it seemed more isolated.