East of WMR

Quick explore while Mr. Cold Miser was distracted. Winds early this week played havoc with the snow near ridgelines - drifts, dunes, scouring, crusts, slabs. Surface patterns indicated these were upslope winds, mostly from the N and E. Also found evidence of upslope southerly winds at basin bottom. All hope is not lost, however. Mid slope snow remained soft on E, S, and NW facing slopes. 

Did not find much evidence of a wind slab problem on these mid elevation slopes. A ~10 cm thick, 4F+ hard wind slab failed easily in tests, but did not propagate and weak layer did not appear to be a persistent weak layer. No propagation or alarming results in the top ~75 cm of the snowpack in tests on a mid elevation, ESE-facing slope.

Surprisingly, no cracking in wind-drifted snow longer than a foot or so.

Snow surface 5-15 cm thick wind slab 4F to 1F+ hard, depending on location. This layer sits uneasily on soft, lower-density snow but shows few signs if instability. No cracking, no propagation (ECTN6) in tests, though did pop off as a sudden planar in a CT (CTE3 SP). 

A second potential failure plane exists ~ 40 cm below the surface. It's a layer of 4F hard graupel/ PPr under a soft (1F-), thin (1-2 cm) crust. It is also not propagating in tests. CTM BRK. 

Surface snow on undisturbed and scoured slopes already faceting.