GTNP - Maverick North Ridge

About a foot of new, low density snow. Unconsolidated and not cohesive to start the day (not much of a storm slab), but a slight difference later in the day skiing out probably due to some settlement and a little wind in exposed areas. Above 9000' the top couple inches of snow was pressed by the wind and there was very minor localized cracking that did not extend deeper into the snowpack. Moderate hand shears were found on the near-surface facets from the 2/6 interface, which was about 26 inches down at 9000'. No collapsing observed all day.

With another 6-12" expected in the next 24 hrs and maybe double that by Sunday night with up to an inch of SWE, I expect to see storm slab instabilities increase and possibly see some activity on the 2/6 layer with the increased load on the snowpack. Increasing westerly and northwesterly winds tomorrow morning will contribute to new snow instabilities particularly in exposed areas at middle and upper elevations. Keep in mind that while the depths of just the new snow might seem like a manageable problem with mitigation techniques, small storm slab and wind slab avalanches could very easily step down to the 2/6 interface (persistent slab problem) in places where these problems overlap. Be conservative around steep avalanche terrain as the snowpack adjusts to this incoming load. And watch out for steep sluffing!

Very localized cracking in storm snow but in general not enough cohesion for widespread cracking. With a little wind effect in exposed areas and some settlement throughout the day, there was a little more cracking on the way out this afternoon. Also, large amounts of sluff in steep terrain that moved easily.