Cold, inversion, wind and still good snow

This was a cold, clear and windy day. -25 at the lodge in the morning. -12 above 1400 m. The winds started in the SW and shifted to W during the day. Quite a bit of snow got blown around, but the skiing was still very good. There is a crust about 40 cm down with facets below it. In one test, this produced a hard sudden failure. We saw no recent avalanches and only a few surficial older windslabs. The coverage is good where there is alder, and the glaciers looked reasonably well covered too. The crust that was formed above 1400 m on 24 October was 260 cm down on the Solitaire Glacier. The surfaces are facetting rapidly and this could make for a problematic interface with the next snowfall.