Wailin' winds

Hold on to your hats, and sleds, it was a windy one at Torpy today. Snow began to fall around 1 PM. Our recent warming has built a 1 cm thick, breakable crust that is capping last weekend's snowfall. On top of this sits 6 cm of new snow that is being redistributed by strong east winds, as low as into below treeline meadows and cutblocks. When we dug at treeline we found both the March 8 and February 20th surface hoar layers down 110 and 115 cm respectively. The March 8 layer did not produce any results in compression tests, but the February layer did consistently show hard results. We did not spot these layers when we dug in the alpine. We noticed a little bit of cracking in wind loaded areas that indicated to us that slabs are beginning to build. However we did not see any avalanches. The best riding could be found in sheltered areas, while the crust was not felt by sleds, it may prove more difficult for skiers.