Anderson-Watson

We felt we could access most terrain at mid-elevations and just needed to skip the steepest, most unsupported slopes with signs of recent wind loading. No on-snow obs at upper elevations, but suspect similar conditions with just more wind-transported snow to assess. Not a soft Moderate at upper elevations, but with limited reactivity, human triggered avalanches didn't seem likely. If one made it up there. Visibility was good enough to navigate and ski, but also made assessing large open slopes difficult. Riding conditions in moderate angle terrain with good with soft pow over crust. Steeper slopes made for firmer turns. 

10cm of fist hard new snow over a ski (but not boot) supportable crust. Signs of minor wind transport on mid-elevation northerly slopes with soft drifts up to 30cm thick. Below new snow, various storm layers, often with thin melt-freeze crusts at interfaces, down to 12/21 crust (down 60-95cm at mid-elevations). Hand shears and other informal testing in the upper snowpack didn't produce much for results. The most interesting layer was down 35cm - a thin melt-freeze crust that likely formed the afternoon of 12/27 with the onset of light rain. Lightly faceted, decomposing fragments below the 12/27 crust. ECTN 2x and CTM-SP in weaker snow below this crust. Not likely to be a big issue but one to keep an eye on.