Weather
Variable cloud cover and moderate wind speeds. Some upper elevation slopes holding dry snow saw saltation of near surface layers. wind loading: none; recent snowfall (cm): 0; snow avail for transport: small smounts
Snowpack
The pre-storm snow surface near and above treeline here consists of melt-freeze crusts (lacking any overlying weak snow) on southerly aspects and small-grained facets (~.3 mm) on dry northerly aspects. Winds were moving the dry snow around in some areas, helping to damage it. I only looked at a couple of below treeline east-facing slopes; the radiation recrystallization grains that formed earlier this week were getting warm from today's greenhousing; I'm uncertain how much of the layer survived. A ~1mm surface hoar layer formed below treeline in Washington Gulch overnight; it was cooked down on the flat roadside slopes that we traveled on this afternoon. . Traveled on numerous steep slopes on various aspects without signs of instability. We generally traveled where the snowpack was deep, but also crossed a few shallow wind-eroded features.
Avalanche
Updated details of the attached avalanche.