Toured up Platinum Peak and down through Cement Basin over to the Lake Basin chutes.
Quick report
On all slopes except the tops of ridgelines and very steep slopes, we observed about 12-18” of fist hardness snow on top of a crust. The crust was much burlier on the solar aspects and was found a bit deeper beneath the recent snow on the polar aspects. Numerous hand pits and an ECT all revealed a reactive density break about 15 cms down from the surface (which will be deeper now after last nights snowfall). This layer failed and propagated at ECTP 1 Q3 down 15cms, but was made up of very low density snow. A gusty S-SE wind was a factor all day long, and we observed substantial wind transport along ridgelines. The atypical wind direction was eroding many older cornices on the windward side and building new wind whales on lee sides. The snow is DEEP, so tree well and snow immersion hazard should be on your mind!
Avalanche
On a NE facing slope at about 6400’, a skier in our group triggered a D1.5 hard slab avalanche that broke about 8-12” deep and 75’ wide. This skier was traversing over a mid-slope rib in the Lake Basin chutes when the slope released below him. No one was caught or carried as it released under his skis, but this happened after two people had already skied over the same piece of terrain. Prior to dropping into the line, we had not observed any hard slab formation so this was a good lesson to be weary of weird wind patterns in exposed consequential terrain, even mid-slope!