Observation: Broads Fork

Went to see what happened in Broads Fork during the storm. There were quite a few shallow crowns on the west facing, one large avalanche on the Diving Board which I put on the avy page and a few other large crowns that looked like glide avalanches east of Bonkers and adjacent to the Blue Ice. There was a rime crust on the surface of the snow and all the trees were incased in ice, up to our high point. Wind loading was present all day up high moving quite a bit of snow. The pack seemed pretty locked up in the terrain travelled with no cracking or collapsing noted but pole probing still revealed poor structure with a slab sitting on lighter density snow, but the surface is froze up tight.

photos: rime crust at 8200ft, crowns on Bonkers and the Diving Board, dropping cloud deck I the afternoon, aspen incased in ice and a video showing spindrift and wind loading on the Diving Board.

I would think with continued wind loading the high elevations will remain considerable

The snow was damp or had a rain crust from about 5300ft up to 7000ft with some settled dense powder in the protected trees, from there on up to 8800ft the surface of the snow was covered with a rime crust.