Powder Up High

There was fresh snow at Lucille today! 18cm of fluffy storm snow was being blown into soft windslabs along ridge lines at upper elevations. While these slabs were soft, we did see signs of instability like shooting cracks and small slab avalanches on easterly aspects. The best riding was found along the edges of tree clumps where the snow was sheltered from northwest winds. We found a slight crust down 20 cm and a second icy crust with facets underneath down around 40 but they did not show signs of propagation in tests (ECTN 21 dn 21, ECTN 25 dn 36). There were flurries throughout the day and new snow is starting to build some depth over the generally shallow snowpack (125 cm).