Upper Bagely-Herman Saddle

Who doesn't love cold, well-settled, springtime powder? For the most part, the new snow is well bonded to the crust below, and wind slab layers at mid-elevations would best be described as stubborn, trending toward unreactive, and isolated in distribution. On the other hand, steep, heavily wind-loaded slopes at upper elevations still deserve assessment. The risk of triggering a wind slab should continue to trend downward in the coming days. Wet avalanche activity was limited in size, but there was enough warming to see an uptick in rollers and small avalanches starting at 11 am. Lower elevations in the immediate area - and above 4000 feet - were seeing enough small wet avalanches to not be Low. But low elevation snow cover doesn't seem significant once you get away from the Baker Backcountry. 

25cm of right-side-up new snow (F > 1F) over the crust buried late on the 24th. The rain that helped produce this latest crust also seemed to have wetted out any dry snow in place and melded that snow into the crust that developed with the last atmospheric river. So just one thick, knife-hard crust. Some wind-loaded terrain had up to 50cm over the crust, but this amount was the exception, not the rule.  A thin layer of F+ snow was producing resistant shears below a layer of wind-dfifted snow on exposed, easterly start zones. Windward slopes right at ridgeline were often scoured down to crust. Southerlies were warming, becoming moist and dense. Expect some crust on southerlies on Friday. Shaded slopes were staying cold and dry.