Weather
Clear skies, near freezing temps at valley bottom. A light breeze and cool temps above treeline.
Snowpack
New snow ranged up to 7 inches at the top of Purple Ridge to an inch or two near the trailhead . A handful of hasty profiles showed a weak snowpack beneath the recent snowstorm on northerly slopes. Low-elevation northerlies had a soft crust from previous warm weather. Easterly slopes showed a supportive melt/freeze crust below the storm snow to an elevation around 11,400 feet (see profile). Above that elevation, the crust became breakable and could collapse under a large new slab. There is not enough new snow in sheltered terrain to form a new slab avalanche problem, although the snowpack structure remains highly faceted. Sunny terrain features below about 11,000 feet became moist by the afternoon. We encountered some shallow soft slabs below the ridge top near and above treeline. In this location, it did not cause any cracking or collapsing. The recent drifting quickly tapered off below the ridge top. Other places in the Ruby Range clearly experienced stronger winds with notable wind effects above treeline. I suspect there are stiffer, larger drifts out there, but we didn't encounter one. Numerous very small, natural Dry Loose avalanches in very steep terrain. Glassing around the range, we did not see any slab avalanches.