Border Ruffian

We left the Hope Valley sno-park with low expectations, given little new snow and strong winds. But as we gained elevation we were pleasantly surprised by 12" and more of new snow. Quality worsened as we got near dense wind deposits, and several wind loaded test slopes cracked but didn't displace. Mitt pits in the cracks showed the failures to be at the new/old interface, and one test slope produced a very small avalanche at this interface. Relatively small, 1.5mm graupel was observed at the bottom of the new snow. Excellent riding conditions were experienced away from wind loaded areas, on mid-elevation slopes with enough tree cover to reduce wind transport. Warm temperatures and strong sunshine caused sunny aspects to become moist at the surface, but we did not observe any wet instabilities today. Ongoing winds may have helped prevent this. 

Shallow new snow in Hope Valley, but 30cm on wind sheltered slopes at 8000ft, and slightly more at higher elevations. New snow had a graupel layer at the bottom of it (1.5mm graupel)