Weather
Heavy snowfall rates this morning tapered midday with some intermittent heavy pulses this afternoon. Only light wind drifting where we traveled below treeline, but we could hear stronger winds aloft. cloud cover: overcast; wind loading: light; rain elevation (ft): N/A; recent snowfall (cm): 50; snow avail for transport: large amounts
Snowpack
Around 11am, storm totals were 46cm at valley bottom near Pittsburg and around 50cm at 10,000ft. Storm instability were observable within the new snow, but the interface between the old snow and new snow was the most problematic weak layer. These facets appeared to be cooked into the crust on some due east-facing slopes and were the most problematic on the ENE and NE-facing slopes that we traveled through. . Breaking trail up the standard PBR route was relatively quiet underfoot, but once we got onto steeper terrain in Cabin Shot, the walls fell down, with many skier triggers, remotes, sympathetic releases, cracking, and some collapses, all breaking on the faceted storm interface about 20" deep.
Avalanche
Many skier triggered soft slabs about 20" thick, ranging from D1 to D2 depending on the terrain size. Visibility was poor, but we could see a couple of small naturals as well.