Mixed Bag of Weak Snow, Just Waiting For a Slab

Toured in southern Glacier Park today to get a more detailed look at the distribution and makeup of persistent weak layers buried on New Year's Eve and see conditions as the storm rolled in.

• We triggered very small leftover wind slabs on the most favored terrain features just in the lee of ridgelines at middle elevations.
• Light to moderate westerly winds didn't have a whole lot of snow left to play with after Saturday's intense winds. Windward slopes near ridges were stripped bare or held hard wind board. Later in the afternoon when snowfall picked up we started to see light blowing snow across ridges and mid-slope convexities.
• We found that the New Year's Eve interface was a mixed bag of persistent weak layers buried under about 10 inches of newer snow. We found sugary faceted snow above a crust or old wind board buried on Christmas Eve. We found surface hoar under newer snow on southeast, east, and northeast aspects between 5,200 and 7,050 feet where we turned around.
• Test results on this motley crew were also a mixed bag. We got short shooting cracks where previous wind had stiffened the snow over the surface hoar, but no ski cut results where the new snow was unconsolidated. We triggered 4 small, soft slab avalanches between 6,200 and 5,200 feet that failed where the 12/31 interface was facets above either crust or old wind board. Here again, the snow above the interface was a little stiffer - mostly thanks to recent winds - and where it was unconsolidated we only triggered small sluffs.
• We felt comfortable skiing wind sheltered terrain with short steep pitches one at a time and regrouping in safe areas with lower slope angles. We found soft snow down slope from wind exposed features and on tree-sheltered slopes.