10 Mile Pond, Upper Valley

Cold, Clear and Calm in Gros Morne today. Great snowmobiling in the upper 10 Mile Pond valley. Evidence of recent strong Westerly winds, and heavy loading in lee features. We gained confidence in the snow pack as the day proceeded, with all kinds of instability tests using sleds on small features and slopes. Above 500 m we could not get any snow moving, despite wind slab being present in wind exposed areas. Wind protected areas provided excellent opportunity for deep powder and great skiing/sledding. Sunny all day, but it did not provide the solar punch to S aspects we expected. Snow stayed dry and cold into the early afternoon. We observed a couple recent avalanches from a distance, that we suspect were within the last 48 hours. South facing slopes. See attached photos. One of them quite large, a size 2 that we question posibleble failure linked to the crust/facet combo we have detected elsewhere on S aspects last week. We spoke with numerous parties at the trailhead who are chasing the end of some awesome conditions encountered today. Rain on the way(