Looking the Dec 1 PWL below the rain line.

Today, we went to the Pole Creek area to gather more information about the Dec. 1 facets. We planned our route to stay in lower-elevation, low-angle areas on the approach to Silver Peak. We also committed to avoiding the main parts of Silver Peak due to the persistent slab instability. Below 7500 ft, this area has plenty of N-NE-facing terrain that we knew had facets before the storm. We also knew that we could move around those places safely without being exposed to steeper terrain. 

As we traveled, we probed and dug into the snowpack. We found the Dec. 1 facets 2-3 ft below the surface. This layer had gotten wet during the rain. It still felt soft and weak even though it was wet. Snowpit data confirmed that the facets were wet, but our snowpit tests did not yield unstable results. However, the Dec. 1 facets did collapse below us at three different locations. At these spots, we stopped next to each other, and one of us jumped on the snow to trigger the collapse/whumpf. Despite these collapses, we saw no cracking or new avalanche activity today. We did see some older avalanches that likely occurred on 12/5 and 12/3 or 12/4.