6-12” of new snow fell with extreme winds last Thursday. Over two weeks of cold clear weather preceded this snowfall which led to a great deal of faceting and weakening of our snowpack in many areas. While test pits across our range have shown a concerning structure with layers of loose snow under stronger snow, no avalanche activity has occurred since the storm 5 days ago, and the avalanche activity that was reported during the storm did not involve these buried layers. Had the latest storm been more significant, these layers most likely would have become reactive and we would have seen many more larger avalanches. But the amount of new snow we received just wasn’t enough to tip the balance. Since the storm relatively warm temperatures and extended period of cloud cover has led to a strengthening snowpack. None-the-less, our shallow suspect snowpack structure should be kept in mind and continue to be monitored. Variability is great across our huge forecast area, and it remains important to take your shovel out and do your own localized assessments.