Even with new snow and SE winds to 25 m/sec (50 knots) last evening, explosive work and ski cuts at Eaglecrest produced nothing but a few tiny slabs. Skier compaction had a strong influence, as the weak layers were cut up pretty thoroughly by weekend traffic. No slides were reported in near - ski area backcountry areas like Heavenly Valley, though these areas were ridden so heavily over the weekend that skier compaction is a big factor there as well.

In more remote backcountry, the snowpack tested weak in block tests but was not storing a lot of energy, and the slab seemed to have had time to relax since the strong winds ended last evening. Still, we must emphasize that we were not able to reach higher elevations today and the instability we noted in strongly wind-affected areas may remain on the higher slopes.

We saw no natural avalanche activity, though it is possible that the strong drifting last night may have obscured the evidence. We observed no other signs of instability, and our slope and traveling tests produced nothing but minor localized cracking. The shooting cracks, cracking drifts, positive parallel tracks results, and fresh slabs of two days ago were conspicuously absent.

All our block tests on a fairly gentle 38° test slope produced identical weak results, fracturing at #4 (first gentle jump) on the 65 cm facet layer at average shear quality (AK4Q2, CAK4Q2, RB4Q2). The facets are well-developed and will be a persistent weak layer that is likely to produce an avalanche cycle when the loading amount and rate are higher. The site did not have the wind loading we had hoped for, so it was not good for evaluating wind-affected areas.

Though the snowpack at low to middle elevations is relatively stable now, backcountry travelers should continue to be cautious due to prominent weak layers in the snowpack. At higher elevations and in wind-affected areas, expect some of the instability from two days ago to remain.

Whenever the loading amount and rate are high again, expect the persistent weak layers in the snowpack to produce more instability.

The total snowpack thickness this year is low, so large avalanches reaching low elevations are still unlikely, but the last storm began to bow down and cover the alders, build drifts and pillows, and fill in the gullies and streambeds. The next major loading event may take us into midwinter conditions where larger slides are possible.