Selkirks-Priest Lake

Well that was a nice storm...with a foot-plus from about 5300' to my top-out at about 6,650'. While touring up basically west-facing trees, the snow had a 5"-7" soft slab crack with each step. Mostly isolated under my skis and no noise except a muffled collapse up on the ridge one time. The new snow wasn't bonded to the previous surface snow very well. Dug a quick pit at about 6,500' or so, West face in a pretty sheltered clearing . The first block broke on the back cut at 17", which was all of the new snow on the first crust. (4F snow). I isolated a second block to verify. While I could cut the block, it only took a few light wrist taps to get the same result (CT3-4). CT12 took out the next two layers, which were only separated by a few inches of rotting facets and subtle signs of old surface hoar barely visible. CT 22 took out the layers down 22-24". Under the old crusts is all rotting snow for the first couple of feet, with consolidating facets (1F), below that to the bottom of my pit at about 36". While the bottom foot didn't move with the CT, it did shear with a mod/hard shovel pull. Needless to say I didn't explore the steep east faces or the direct north facing slopes as I figured they were the most loaded and would be super sensitive. I skied mostly the northerly aspects off of West-facing finger ridges and the snow was amazing. The sluff was considerable, but controlled and fast moving. I was on <35* slopes except when trying to pop small convexities along the way. I'd call it rather dangerous out there if in the wrong location. Steep, confined slopes, large open interconnected slopes have a high likelihood of sliding until this settles out a bit. Sleds and snowbikes should be ultra cautious as they'll easily trench a couple of feet down, through all of those layers. It's time to enjoy lower angled trees and slopes while this fantastic snow stays with us. The weather was mostly overcast until the afternoon when the sunshine peaked out briefly. Light breeze.

Quick report