Quick report
We toured up to Magnum from the Cornbiscuit lot today to see if wind slabs were forming and to check on the December facets. We found the facets buried over 3' deep in one snowpit and just under 1' deep in another and had stable results in both. It seems like this layer is very stubborn even though the structure is poor especially in areas where the snowpack is thin near rocky ridgelines. There was quite a bit of wind transport off the ridgelines in multiple directions loading slopes below. There was even some transport right at treeline. The forecast is for the wind to remain elevated until Saturday so I would expect wind slabs to be a problem for the next day or two. Surface conditions were variable with some places wind scoured with anti-tracks and some deeper wind drifts both old and new. There were some surprisingly good turns despite the variability keeping us on our toes.
Weather
It was a wintery day with temperatures around 18 degrees F. Ridgetop winds were coming from the south on the skier side and blowing from the north on the motorized side. There was blowing snow off of the ridgelines on both sides. There was snow blowing around at lower elevations as well. It was partly sunny most of the day with clouds moving fast in multiple directions.
Snowpack
There was 1" of new snow from the parking lot to the ridgetops, although the snow above treeline was blown into wind drifts. At 900' there was surface hoar visible beneath the new snow, but I didn't see the surface hoar above that elevation. Above treeline the surface conditions were variable. There was evidence of previous wind on all aspects including anti-tracks and lots of texture. We dug a snowpit at 3,100' on a south facing slope and got stable results (ECTX, DTN, PSTX). The December facets were over 3' down (100cm) and were 1F and dry to just barely moist (.5-2mm). We climbed the ridge to 3,250' and dug a quick pit on the north side. The facets were about 1' down (25cm) underneath a very firm wind slab (P+). They looked bigger and got progressively more firm with depth, (F, 4F, 1F). We got a stable result in this snowpit (ECTX).