Getting more stubborn

Date of Observation: 12/11/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Pittsburg Rollers area, up to 10,500 ft on north to northeast aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nothing new today. Filling in some previously undocumented persistent slabs from the 12/6-12/8 cycle. See photos.
Weather: Unseasonably warm and sunny
Snowpack: Widespread 1mm to 3mm surface hoar below about 10,000 feet on shady aspects, with minor near surface faceting elsewhere on the snow surface.
After venturing away from the regularly traveled areas, we tried getting collapses by skinning, stomping skis, and then punching boots through the slab a few times. Only one of the boot pen attempts produced a rumbling collapse. Tests produced hard, propagating results on a F+ layer of rounding facets buried below an 80 cm slab up to 1F hard. The failure occurred just below the thin rime/rain crust that formed back in November. See pit.