As the Mayan Calendar predicted the end of the world at 2:11 this morning and along with that the end of our meager early season, it seems neither has occurred. The world is still here and so is our shallow snowpack full of persistent weak layers.
The wind slabs that caused so much excitement a week ago have been slowly deteriorating under the cold and clear weather to the point of becoming mostly non-reactive. Snowpack evaluations and the lack of recent avalanches have pointed to a pack that is becoming harder and harder to trigger an avalanche in. However, this is not the case everywhere and we struck gold, as John Fitzgerald stated in his observation, yesterday with finding one of these slopes still flashing red lights.
The areas we are most concerned about are in steeper, unsupported terrain (i.e., above cliffs and on rollovers at the mid-elevations) where stiffer, supportable snow (old wind slabs) are sitting on weak sugary snow. Watching and listening for collapsing and hollow feeling areas will be your best bet at sussing out suspect slopes. If you can punch a pole or boot though the stiff snow, though this may be tough in thicker slabs, and feel unconsolidated snow beneath – steer clear and head for a slope lacking that stiff slab.
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