Powderhouse Peak

I was glad I checked Kelly Chang's Powderhouse Observation from 4/11 before heading there myself this morning. It was a good reminder of how thin or nonexistent  snow coverage was in this location before the most recent storm. Although the fresh snow improved conditions signficantly, it was still tough to avoid obstacles below about 8500' on Powdershouse today. Above the that, the riding was about as good as it gets. On my first lap I ascended the ridge and looked at wind loaded slopes. Although I observed some cracking, I didn't see much propagation on wind features. Evaluating tracks from yesterday, it appeared that around 5" of new snow fell overnight. Winds were calm on the ridge and at the summit. Looking across at Little Roundtop there were a couple of avalanches visible that appeared to have occurred yesterday.