Excelsior

Another good day of riding, with almost a foot of light, dry snow sitting over a crust. Small loose dry avalanches that had mainly run from steep, rocky areas in the last 48 hours were the only avalanches we saw. There weren't any that were triggered by sledders- although most areas we traveled weren't quite steep enough.  Snow wasn't wind-affected and didn't have any slablike qualities.

The sun didn't seem to be out for quite long enough to have much of an impact up higher. Riding back along the road, it felt much warmer and sunnier down there, and a few tiny wet loose slides had happened on steep south-facing cut banks. 

A few loose dry avalanches, or sluffs, were seen in steep areas. Most of them had run in the previous day. A lot were D1 or smaller. One was a D1.5.

10 inches of low density snow sat over a crust. The new snow depth was consistent at most elevations, mainly shrinking in amounts below about 3000ft. There was minimal wind-affect in the new layer, even along upper elevation ridgelines. 

The crust varied with elevation, from thicker and chunkier at 4000ft to a noticeable thin rain crust at 5500ft, with a couple inches of slightly harder snow beneath that crust. The crust surface was smoother and the snow above it wasn't as well bonded at higher elevations whereas lower down it was rougher and bonded a bit better.  It was very easy for my steps to break through the crust at that higher elevation, and a little harder at the lower elevations. 

I searched in my pits for any sign of weaker, faceted snow near both the upper 3/12 crust and the 3/8 crust as well. I only found decomposing forms- breaking down new snow, and rounds. In my lower elevation pit, I had a failure in isolation on a 30x30cm block beneath the upper 3/12 crust. No other results in either pit were significant.

I only noticed a few steep south facing slopes from around 4000ft and lower that may have moistened.