Herman Gulch

Greater than-expected reactivity quickly reduced the amount of available terrain. The wind slab hazard was easy to identify and avoid, but where present would also have been easy to underestimate compared to "typical" stormy conditions. Unfortuantely the best turns were also on the slopes with wind drifted snow. Natural avalanches were a real concern on slopes seeing the greatest loading and avoided travel below them. Suspect this instability will resolve shortly but would investigate before committing to any sort of large slope that saw recent wind loading. Plenty of dry snow and a few weak layers will probably produce some big avalanches if we see heavy rain later this weekend. 

15cm of 1F new snow redistributed onto leeward slopes. Exposed crust on windward aspects. Wind drifted areas to 60cm deep.  1-2cm layer of 4F between new snow/wind slabs and old surface crust from recent warming. Increasing hardness except for very thin layer of soft snow down 40cm - suspected 2/15 interface. Could not isolate block for tilt test as the crust interface would fail cutting back of block. 2/15 produced mixed results but more reactivity than expected with ECTN 1x and ECTP 1x. Very stormy conditions prevented accurate grain ID. 1/10 (JDL) down 120cm on a northerly, low elevation slope.