Quick report
We spent the day traveling in north facing terrain near and below treeline in the hairpin environs. We did not observe signs of instability during our outing. The recent snow that had fallen over the past two days was of the heavy wet variety up to 6400’. From 6400’ to ~6800’, the high point of our tour, the surface had a light zipper crust possibly indicating freezing rain or wind? The new snow was about 4-6” deep on zipper crust from 5200’ to 6200’. Above 6200’ the depth did increase slightly and the zipper crust was more subtle but still there. Despite the variety of snow quality and surfaces the skiing was ok. Travel was good though the snow dense so not the fastest either direction. During our outing we spent most of our time in conservative terrain with brief moments in complex terrain. Our hand pits suggested the new snow had bonded well with the old crust. There were signs of avalanche activity during the previous warmup/rain. Much of the debris had a light coating from the recent snow. We did collect a snow profile at 6300’ in flat basin in a generally north facing aspect. We did find general coverage quite good though many creeks were open. For the depth the lack of snow bridges seemed atypical but makes sense given the high frequency of rain events this winter. During our outing we did not observe signs of instability.
Avalanche
There were signs of avalanche activity during the recent warmup and rain event.