Divide Peak

Today, we toured in Hyalite up to Divide Basin and Divide Peak. The weather was sunny and the winds were mostly calm, except near ridgelines were a light and cold breeze was blowing from the south west. 

While we were in the canyon, we spotted lots of very small (D1) dry loose avalanches that released naturally in very steep terrain, often near cliffs. Most of them on easterly aspects. One small avalanche broke a bit deeper that was triggered by a tree bomb. 
In Divide Basin, we spotted two recent naturally triggered wind slabs (D1.5) on a north/north-easterly aspect. While we were touring we didn't observe any cracking or collapsing.

We dug two snow profiles, one on a northerly aspect and another one higher up on a southerly aspect. In our first pit, we found a layer of surface hoar that is burried underneath soft new snow. In our second pit, we also found a weak layer of near surface facets underneath a suncrust 6" down from the surface. In both pits, the new snow that is sitting on top of the weak layer was soft and didn't show slab characteristics yet. But we also observed wind affected snow that was stiffer near ridge lines and in wind loaded areas. Our test results in both pits did not show any propagation (ECTN22 in the north facing pit and ECTX on the south side).