Talking Mtn

A cold, windy, and snowy day around Echo Lakes. Several inches of new snow had accumulated on our cars by the end of the day. The snow that fell within the past 24 hours was low density and available for wind transport, and wind slabs on test slopes were sensitive to triggering. Although travel along the ridge was exposed to winds, we found the winds and wind slabs did not extend far downhill on the leeward side of the ridge. I believe this was more a function of the terrain than the weather and snowpack, since most features were being top loaded instead of cross loaded. A neighboring party triggered a small wind slab mid-slope, where the terrain feature was more exposed to winds. The snow on our descent was unconsolidated and didn't display slab characteristics, and in the mid-slope cliffs/steeps in the trees off Talking Mtn, we triggered a few small and inconsequential sluffs. 

Snow from the past week has settled to 2ft on top of the old crust. The 24 hour snow was 4-6", low density, and available for wind transport.