Feb 23 - Feb 27 Anderson trip. Dug 150 cm test profile in open gladed SW terrain near cabin at 1200 m on Feb 24. Found surface hoar layer down 20 cm, suspect same as avy that involved 2 people at shames last week on MIN report. Got a moderate compression test result on this layer, CTM 15 down 20 cm. Also melt freeze crusts down 55 cm showing signs of faceting, deep layer 40 cm of sugary snow below crust acting as a vapour barrier. A layer to watch going forward, suspect same as described at the snowpack talk last week.
Then on Feb 25 we received 70 + of storm snow and high winds at cabin, extreme at in alpine. Huge plumes of blowing snow on ridges, significant wind transport even at treeline. Ski quality excellent below treeline. Snowpack remained suprisingly stable, some moderate sloughing on the steep pitches. We just stuck to the deep tree skiing. Did not see or hear any naturals during the storm, but it was pretty stormy.
Will post snow profile on snowpilot.org