Quick report
Our group of 8 spent 3 days on primarily North to East to SE aspects between 6500 - 8000 ft elevation from March 1-3 2024 near Morrell Mountain and Morrell Mountain Lookout. During this time we skied about 8 runs with typical slope angle between 25-30 degrees and short pitches between 30-35 degrees. We skied a few convexities with trailing short sections of 35-40 degree slope. We traversed the ridgeline from Morell Lookout to Morell Mountain and observed mostly intact cornices ranging in size from a small car to a short bus. These cornices were largest on ESE aspects but also existed on E and ENE aspects to a smaller degree. We did not observe any signs of instability besides very small localized cracking around our skis in areas seeming to have a hardened wind slab of moderate (1F) density. Wind slabs only observed near ridgelines and large exposed terrain variations . Broke off some small cornices with our skis at the top of runs and did not observe any cracking or resultant propagation. During this time we received inconsistent snowfall totaling about 3-5 inches with 5 inches at the higher elevations near 7500-8000 feet. Small storm sluffing observed on March 4. Skiing was powder conditions on all aspects skied. Southerly aspects below 7000 felt a bit unsafe due to lack of coverage of sticks and stumps. Snowpack diminishes in depth rapidly below 6500 ft.