Observation: Silver Fork

Around noon Sunday I toured out of the Highway to Heaven gate from Solitude over Twin Lakes Pass to the top of Honeycomb Cliffs. There was approximately 5-6" inches of new snow as I approached the top of Honeycomb Cliffs. I dug down quickly to see how the new snow was bonding and observed a mediocre bond between the new snow and the firm crust underneath. I was surprised to see some faceting beginning underneath the crust about 12-14" down which caused me a little bit of concern. I wasn't able to get any columns to shear readily and probing with my poles didn't result in a "punchy" feeling throughout the snow but i'll be keeping an eye out for this layer in the future. Maybe the new snow will prevent further deterioration.

I descended East Bowl and observed some sluffing near the top but nothing too drastic. I continued down Silver Fork and made two laps in the Meadow Chutes before exiting on the BCC side around 5:30. Another 2-3" inches accumulated during the late afternoon and the snow felt mostly stable except for some continued sluffing in the steeper terrain about 2/3rds of the way down each run. I would be cautious of any windloaded features as this new snow seemed to sluff longer distances than I expected.