I continue to monitor the buried Persistent Weak Layer of loose faceted snow from November. It's still there and remains a concern. The immediate concern is in places where the wind has transported and deposited snow into drifts and slabs. These places are the most likely places to trigger an avalanche that breaks into the weak layer. The tricky thing is recognizing these places. They are scattered about kind of like land mines. Personally, I just continue to avoid slopes steeper than 30˚ right now. If you notice fresh drifts on steep slopes, avoid them.

During fieldwork on Thursday I performed numerous snow pit tests. The results were somewhat stubborn but the weak layer still breaks clean with energetic propagation. This tells me that the snowpack is not completely stable yet. We will need to keep an eye on it especially if significant storms move in next week.