Quick report
Throughout my ski tour today I observed no signs of instability. No avalanches observed and the only notable red flag was the approximately 12” of semi dense new snow that blanketed the slopes above 7500’. I was surprised to see that the new snow that I was traveling through was mostly unaffected by wind. Speaking of wind, the wind was calm to light all day out of the west. The sky was cloudy all day and the temperature was -10 degrees C at 8450’ . It starteded snowing around 2:30 this afternoon. By 4:00 PM the snow was coming down at a rate of about 1cm per hour. The only instability I observed today was in a snowpit I dug on a 40 degree east facing slope at 8450’. The height of snow at my snowpit location was 85 cm’s. I performed an Extended Column Test. My column propagated energetically on the 15th tap. The column failed on a 1” layer of facets that were residing about 30cm down from the snow surface. Above the facets was a thin crust. The bed surface was a thick 1 finger layer of older consolidated snow. When I observe propagation in my snow pits it makes me nervous about stability. Therefore, I proceeded conservatively throughout the rest of my ski tour. Worth noting, creeks at and below 7500’ were still uncovered or barely covered by snow. I also am still hitting the occasional rock. Finally, the height of snow at my snowpit location was 85 cm’s.