Bald Mtn

I saw about a dozen large, recent persistent slab avalanches on shady slopes from 7000-9000' in Deer Ck and Warm Springs Ck and tributaries; the persistent slab problem was/is active in those drainages. I didn't observe any glaring new snow issues today. There's a lot of new snow to produce wet loose issues when we get a good dose of unobstructed sunshine.  

A handfull of small (D1) wet loose on mid-elevation solars yesterday, possibly one this morning. They appeared to be running on a mid-storm interface from around Monday night, when the intense graupel storm moved through Hailey. No graupel observed here, but there was a change in crystal form. "The Burn" (Warm Springs drainage - out of bounds): 2nd hand and 3rd hand observations = some recent activity on the skier's left (N-facing) sides of prominent chutes, no recent activity in the NW-facing guts or the skier's right (W-facing) sides.

Surface: Interesting new crusts with fresh near surface facets beneath. Crusts were razor-2cm thick on shady aspects, up to 5cm on solar aspects. Crusts were fairly soft, 4F-1F for the most part. The fresh facets beneath made for very clean shears in hand pits and could make for some touchy surficial WL conditions when the sun comes out for real (Saturday?). 

2/1 interface: Storm snow is sitting on hard, textured crusts below about 7500'. Above that, storm snow is on a variety of stout, textured crusts on solars that thin on the margin aspects and dissappear on shady aspects near 9000'. Dozens of hand pits and ski cuts on road banks (untouched areas and above previous ski tracks) and in small unskied areas did not produce any clean shears. If it was moving, it did so on 1/6.  

1/6: Ugly structure is there, especially on shady aspects above 8000'. No formal tests.