Mt. Judah Observations

We went to the Donner Summit area to see if the recent persistent slab avalanche problem was showing signs of still being reactive.  We saw mostly cloudy conditions through the morning with some brief sun breaks.  Moderate NE winds kept it cool in wind exposed areas with light amounts of blowing snow along exposed ridges.  We dug 2 different snowpits on northerly terrain, one at 7500' and one at 7800' in more wind loaded terrain.  The old snow surface crust, with the buried weak layer below, lies up to 2 to 3' deep below the snow surface.  At both locations, multiple snowpack tests did not show any signs of failure or propagation potential ( 2x ECTX and PST 100/100 END on the suspected weak layer).  Consistent soft snow is limited to northerly aspects above 7400'.  Lower elevations and other aspects have developed a variety of crusts from warming temperatures and solar radiation.  We saw 1 natural loose wet avalanche that occurred off of some rocks on a north aspect.  While we did not experience intense solar radiation during our tour, we could see other areas in the distance that were receiving full sun.