Mammoth Crest - Old Wind Slabs, New Wet Loose

I went to where we received the most snow during the recent storm to hunt down old wind slabs and look at wet loose avalanches.

• On slopes that had both the recent new snow and sunshine below about 10,200 ft. I could easily trigger small wet loose avalanches and rollerballs starting around 12:30 pm. I also saw a new natural wet loose avalanche on my drive home.
• I found one location where I got repeatable propagation in my snowpack tests in soft dry snow under a wind slab. In another location, I got short shooting cracks in a small slab. I also stomped across several slopes that had beed wind loaded during the storm. Wind slabs seem stubborn because my tests indicate instability, but I couldn't buy a wind slab avalanche.  Wind slabs also seem isolated, given how hard I had to work to sniff out some instability.
• The Mammoth Area got the most snow during the storm that brought us into April, and it's also where the most storm snow accumulated down to lower elevations. It's also probably the only place in the forecast area where you could trigger a small wet loose avalanche today.

I intentionally triggered a few small wet loose avalanches. I got isolated cracking in a wind slab on a northwest aspect at 10,400 below and alpine ridge.

10,100 ft, northeast aspect, near treeline, sidewall of a previously wind-loaded gully: ECTP2 x2 down 10 cm. Slab: 1 finger wind-packed rounds. Weak layer: Fist, mixed forms of 2 mm wind-broken fragmented grains and 1 mm near-surface facets. This was at a storm interface, not the new/old interface.

10,400 ft, northwest aspect, above treeline, below a previously wind-loaded ridge: short shooting cracks (4 ft.). Slab: 1 finger wind-packed rounds. Weak layer: Fist, mixed forms of 2 mm wind-broken fragmented grains and 1 mm near-surface facets at the new/old interface just above a P hard melt-freeze crust.