On Saturday Jan. 15 Bob Howell skied the Potholes route to the open meadows 
on its upper section.  The weather was very nice, with very light snow in 
the morning, slowly becoming clear.  The wind was relatively calm.  The 
conditions on the trail were good, with a few inches of new snow from the 
previous night.

I met three other skiers on the trail.

At 2 PM I dug a snow pit at NAD27 13T 0396759 4579990, elevation 10450 ft. 
on one of the open slopes just below where the trail enters the first of 
the upper open meadows.  This snow pit was about 15 ft south of the one 
from Jan. 11 and about 35 ft south of the one from Feb. 8.  It was on a 19 
deg. slope facing 86 deg. (East).  The pit showed the following snow pack 
structure.

  # Height Temp   Comments     Hardness   Snow grain structure
     (cm)   (C)
 air       -5.0
 ----152----------------------------------------------------------------------
 13  150   -3.5    fresh       fist        0.7 mm dendritic crystals
 ----145----------------------------------------------------------------------
 12  140   -4.5                4 fingers   0.5 mm slightly rounded
 ----137----------------------------------------------------------------------
 11  130   -5.0                2 finger    0.5 mm slightly rounded
 ----123----------------------------------------------------------------------
 10  120   -5.5                3 finger    0.7 mm slightly rounded
 ----112----------------------------------------------------------------------
 09  110   -6.0                4 finger    2   mm rounded, slightly faceted
 ----106----------------------------------------------------------------------
 08  100   -5.5                2 finger    1.5 mm somewhat faceted
 ---- 98----------------------------------------------------------------------
 07                            pencil      0.5 mm rounded
 ---- 94----------------------------------------------------------------------
 06   90   -5.5                1 finger    1.0 mm rounded, some facets
 ---- 83----------------------------------------------------------------------
 05   80   -5.0                > pencil    0.3 mm rounded
 ---- 79----------------------------------------------------------------------
 04   70   -4.5                pencil      1.0 mm rounded, some facets
 ---- 66----------------------------------------------------------------------
 03   60   -4.0                1 finger    1.5 mm faceted
 ---- 51----------------------------------------------------------------------
 02   50   -3.5                1 finger    2.0 mm faceted
      40   -2.5
 ---- 34----------------------------------------------------------------------
 01   30   -2.0
      20   -1.0                3 finger    3.0 mm faceted
      10   -1.0
 ----  0-- 
0.0----------------------------------------------------------------

Shovel shear test.  Working down through the pack
  Moderately light force for failure at 11/12 interface (~137 cm)
  Moderate         force for failure in soft layer #9   (~112 cm)
  Moderately light force for failure at 7/8 interface   ( ~98 cm)
  Moderate         force for failure at 5/6 interface   ( ~83 cm)
  Layers 2 & 3 crumble easily

In the Rutschblock test:

(Note:  This only applies to the upper part of the pack.  That pack is
 now deep enough that I couldn't isolate the block all the way down to the
 depth hoar layer at the bottom -- so this test doesn't measure stability
 with respect to it.)

 The fresh surface layers 13 & 12 slumped easily
 It required several moderate jumps to cause failure in soft layer #9

Summary:  The depth hoar seems to be slowly consolidating but overall pack 
stability with respect to it is hard to test.  The middle of the pack is 
also consolidating, but there is one weak zone (layer #9) about 40 cm below 
the surface, as well as several hard layers which could act as potential 
sliding surfaces.  However the Rutschblock test indicated that at least the 
upper part of the pack is reasonably stable.

The car counts were as follows.
                         ------ 11:10 AM -------
                            with    without
                          trailers  trailers
 Corner Mountain Lot         0         0
 Little Laramie Lot          0         1
 Ski Area to Cattleguard    47         1
 Cattleguard to Turnaround  22         4
 Green Rock Picnic Gnd. Lot  0         7
 Road above Turnaround      30         8

 Total                      99        21