Mt. Glory

The wind came back with a vengeance. Strong winds affected most snow surfaces on south and west aspects at upper elevations on Mt. Glory. Sensitive drifts formed on leeward slopes. The winds were gusty and swirling at times, leading to higher sensitivity but decreased uniformity of wind slabs. Drifts that were forming seemed to be on the smaller side. That being said, larger terrain features with big fetches probably are a different story.

Slabs were 4 to 8 inches deep and about 4F hard, failing on density changes. I did not note any interaction of slabs with buried weak layers. I would imagine areas that are 8,000 to 9,500 feet where the weak layer is more pronounced will be feeling the stress of a more cohesive slab for the first time since they were buried.

With clearing, I was able to look around and did not see much avalanche activity. Some small D1 wind slab avalanches were visible near Taylor.

Cracking in sensitive wind drifts on leeward convexities.