Point 6

There was 5" of new snow from last night, bringing the total to around 12" of snow in the last several days. Along upper elevation ridgelines, the new snow was drifted into small wind slabs on north and east aspects, and I observed stubborn cracking in the wind slabs. Below ridgelines, the recent snow was dense and slabby, and there may have been some isolated storm slabs. 

The new snow became moist at the surface on south aspects due to the intermittent sunshine. I observed small rollerballs on steep south aspects and suspect that triggering small wet loose avalanches was possible on those slopes. Tomorrow, those areas will have a thin surface melt freeze crust. 

The persistent slab and wet slab concerns remain, although triggering either of them is unlikely. 

I dug two snowpits today, one on a south aspect at 7750 ft and the other on a north aspect at 7800 ft. Both pits had a total of 12" of recent snow resting on a crust. There was 5" of new snow from last night, resting on around 7" of snow that fell in the last several days. There was some graupel in last night's snowfall. On the south aspect, the crust under the recent snow was thick and stout, and below it was moist and wet snow to the ground. On the north aspect, the crust was thin, and there was a dry 1F hard slab below it. Below the slab was the crust-facet combo buried in the mid-pack. The facets have rounded but remain weak. Neither snowpit produced any propagating results in extended column tests.