Anthracites

The Kebler Elves pulled off some magic last night with up to 16" of very low density snow at AMR.  There was evidence of lots of tiny storm instabilities last night, but these issues had largely settled out by mid-day.  Sluffing in very steep terrain was the main concern and it only entrained the storm snow or top few inches of recently buried facets here.  The storm snow lacked wind effect or slabbiness where we traveled.   We did get one collapse on a deeper layer.   The storm interface is highly variable; some slopes can handle this week's forecasted load, while others won't.  

Observations focused on the storm interface, buried 10 to 40 cm deep under low-density snow lacking a slab at the moment.   The weakest and largest-grained facets that I found were on E to ESE facing terrain on the south side of the Playground; perhaps from larger diurnal swings and a shallower snowpack there.  Thin, collapsible crusts start to appear on the transition from E to SE, and those crusts get thicker, supportive to skis, and can handle a larger load transitioning from SE to S aspects.    Wind-exposed northerly aspects have firm wind crusts of varying thickness over small-grained facets (can handle a larger load).  Wind-sheltered northerly terrain has weak, small-grained facets at the storm interface, which will be more problematic than the windboard.