One inch. Better than no inches. Or is it?

Date of Observation: 12/24/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek and Upper Brush Creek near Pearl Pass, up to 12700′ on various aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of previous hard slab avalanches from the arctic blast, D1 to D2, on heavily drifted slopes, generally E to S NTL.
Weather: Calm to light ridgetop winds. Mostly cloudy with periods of light snow. 1″ to 2″ of new snow since yesterday.
Snowpack: The Cement Creek valley floor was not as heavily wind impacted as what I’ve seen in the East River and Slate River corridors. The snow surface remains soft and weak below treeline, ~1mm facets. Once we climbed to near and above treeline, the snowpack got blasted. Snow surfaces are heavily wind affected, ranging from sastrugi to wind board to hard slab. The inch or two of fluffy new snow with no wind affect is a notable potential weak layer to monitor, especially if it facets over the next few days. It’s very low density resting on top of firm, wind hardened surfaces and there was minimal wind drifting it around, so it’s widespread at the moment.
No signs of instability today, though we weren’t messing around on the most suspect, windloaded slopes.