Big Sheep Creek

I traveled in the Northern Wallowas today into the Tenderfoot Trailhead and up to the NW ridge of the "Catcher's Mitt".  There was 4-6" along the 100 road.  We noted very little wind in the valley bottom, and by the time we exited, the trees were still holding their snow (little in the way of transported snow at lower elevation).  There was a different story higher in elevation with some intense wind transporting plenty of snow.   We noted cracking of the storm snow in non-wind-affected snow (storm slabs) as well as more pronounced cracking in wind-affected zones (wind slabs).  Our skin track was mostly filled back in an hour.  

Plenty of cracking of new storm snow in wind-sheltered terrain and wind exposed terrain. I noted 1 D1.5 Natural Wind Slab Avalanche

I conducted an ECT at 7600' on a North aspect.  The structure, as you can see below, is mostly right-side up.  However, some density changes created 3 different propagating failures in the upper snowpack.  ECTP2 down 25 cm, ECTP15 down 40 cm, and ECTP30 down 55 cm.  I was running out of daylight, and there was so much snow blowing around that it was hard to tell what the columns failed on.  

Mostly all you needed to see was the wind and snow transport to know that the new snow was reactive today.