Quick report
Headed up to the Monitors not expecting much but was surprised at how smooth they looked, most likely do to the high wind speeds a couple days ago. The 4 inches of dense new snow softened the riding but a bit of a zipper crust up high kept you on your toes. I ski cut what looked like some wind slabs sitting on soft snow on a steep portion of S Monitor with no results, the new snow seemed well bonded to the old surface, but at a higher elevation with more dense wind blown snow on a hard bed surface I could see wind slabs moving. On my exit the S facing had not softened due to lack of sun, but the W provided a less teeth rattling exit.
photos: drooping cornices in S Monitor,
Snowpack
Most of the S, E and W facing terrain has a melt freeze crust with a skiff of new snow, the S facing up high had been wind scoured down to the old crust and was loud. The due N consisted of dense settled powder, the NE which I skied had a bit of a zipper crust in the top but changed back to dense and settled a ways down the slope, didn’t seem like there was enough sun today to dampen or soften the upper elevations.