Mt. Judah

About 6 to 8 inches of new snow existed on top of the rain crust at the parking lot. As soon as we left the car, we saw signs of wind-affected snow and wind loading. About 2 minutes from the parking lot, we kicked on a small wind-loaded test slope, which cracked. Another nearby one only cracked after we undercut it. We continued up, and the new snow amounts increased. By 7500 ft, the rain crust was buried under 8 to 12 inches of new snow. We continued to see widespread signs of wind transport during yesterday's storm, including ripples, drifts, scoured areas, and new cornices. The fragile cornices failed easily, away from the edges of small test slopes. Those dropped cornice pieces did not trigger shooting cracks or wind slab failures. We stayed away from the larger cornices. We also saw recent wind slab avalanches described in the avalanches section. The winds were light this morning and did not transport snow. We stuck to lower-angle terrain and could barely feel the crust below the new snow.  Sheltered areas held the best conditions with soft, consistent snow. 

We saw several wind slab avalanches that must have failed during the storm on 1/3/25. We also triggered some cracking in areas with wind affected snow. Most of this cracking occurred above other tracks, but a ski kick did trigger a shooting crack on a previously untouched wind-loaded test slope.