Relay Peak

We went to Relay Peak in the Mt. Rose area to look at the persistent slab avalanche problem.  We dropped cornice chunks, ski cut, and moved through many northerly aspect terrain without experiencing any whumpfing sounds, collapses, or signs of instability.  We dug 2 test pits at different locations with no unstable snowpack test results.  The recent storm snow is gaining strength and at 1F hardness.  We couldn't find any buried surface hoar at this location, but did see old faceted snow that has begun to round and strengthened to 1F- hardness.  These previous weak layers have bonded into the existing snowpack at the locations that we observed today.  

Mostly sunny skies with warming temperatures produced small roller balls on East-South aspects, mainly below 9000'.  At elevations above 9000, winter snow still existed on most all aspects with limited warming occuring.