Quick report
We saw numerous small, loose wet avalanches, primarily initiated by point releases near exposed rocks on steep, north facing terrain. Overcast most of the day with periods of light snow, light rain, and intermittent, warm sunshine. New precipitation was negligible and winds remained fairly mild. Most of the snow we encountered was relatively wet and heavy, even on northerly aspects. We performed an informal Column Test and Extended Column Test at about 8,700 feet on a northerly aspect where the snow depth was about 255cm. Neither test produced a failure. We did find a layer of facets on top of a crust, under about 175 centimeters of fairly consolidated snow (descending from fist to four finger to one finger). Out of curiosity, we pried the top of the ECT block with a shovel after performing the test, and this caused a planar failure at the weak layer we had observed, as well as a failure about half way through the block on a thin graupel layer. Despite the relatively slow warming throughout the day, we did start to see more signs of loose wet instability as the day progressed, including one north facing slope that was riddled with point releases from areas around exposed rock when we observed it at noon.