Consolidated Snow over Facets

Cold overnight temperatures and clear skies with little wind allowed the upper several inches of the snowpack to facet and become less cohesive in the Incline Lake Peak area last night. 4 to 8 inches of soft unconsolidated snow existed above a supportable snowpack in sheltered areas. In wind exposed areas some slightly more dense wind affected snow existed on the snow surface at the upper elevations. At the base of the recent snow, a strong refrozen rain crust existed with more consolidated strong snow below that. Near the bottom of the snowpack a layer of weak facets still persists underneath this strong snow.  Tests on the upper snowpack showed a well bonded strong snowpack. Tests targeting the facets buried 120cm below the surface indicated that if a fracture starts in this layer that fracture would likely propagate along this layer. Data also indicated that due to the strong snow above this facet layer having it actually break due to a person's weight is unlikely in this area at this time unless someone could find a spot where the weak layer was much closer to the surface. 

We did not observe any signs of new wind slab instabilities on Incline Lake Peak, and only saw minor snow transport resulting from some light N winds.