General Observations

Transitional Zone: 4800’/E-aspect/Overcast/Light N-wind/12F. Cloudy for a partly sunny day at Old Faithful. Overnight winds from the north added texture to the surface with areas of packed powder and wind slab above 2500′. Better snow quality and 1mm surface hoar below 2500′. Dug near the top on a shallow SE aspect HS 80cm, more out of curiosity rather than stability assessment. Two layers in the top 15cm, with a mostly ice hard structure below. At the ground was a thin layer of 1-2mm depth hoar below the ice crust. With well below freezing temperature in the forecast, the cold regime will promote faceting, or weakening of snow grains. We should keep this in mind especially on shallow, solar aspects.

• Two pockets of old slide debris above trail on N-aspect 2300′ ran 500-1000′ guess during the 1/18 storm
• Across the valley above the highway S-aspect below 2500′ dozens of glide cracks and a few that had slid