Grouse Canyon

While we did not see many signs of instability in our tour, we did experience just about every kind of snow surface. We found firm wind-scoured surfaces, uneven wind-sculpted features, and sastrugi near the ridges. A breakable wind crust also existed on some sheltered slopes. Other sheltered NW-N-NE facing slopes still held pockets of cold, soft snow.

When we switched to the ridge's other side to check out the E-SE-S aspects, we found thin, breakable melt-freeze crusts and dense, moist snow on the surface. Today's cloud cover kept deep, wet snow from forming and prevented the crusts from melting away. We could also see signs of yesterday's wet snow, like rolling balls and pinwheels near rocks.