Unreactive wind slabs on Elephant's Hump

Widespread evidence of newly formed hard wind slabs, but no evidence of current snowpack instability was observed on our tour of Elephant's Hump. Lots of evidence of recently wind drifted snow was observed near treeline and above treeline.  Wind slabs were pencil hard and 5 to 20 cm thick. Some minor skier triggered cracking but no signs of problematic instability were noted in either formal or informal tests. Shaded northerly aspects below treeline continue to hold unconsolidated near surface facets.

We identified easy shears on the 12/4 buried surface hoar layer, approx 5 inches below the snow surface in wind protected areas. In many locations the 12/4 surface hoar layer was quite decomposed. In other areas it was still fairly well preserved with a grain size of 8-10 mm. Were were not able to find areas where a problematic slab was on top of surface hoar. No signs of current instability associated with this weak layer.