Observation: Tele Heaven

In my pit, I found about 9" of new very light snow. Then there were a couple 4F old surfaces immediately above F facet layers. Near the ground there was a denser slab 4F to 1F about 30 cm over about 15 cm of 2-3mm facets. I did a quick CT test and had the surface snow kind of collapse and slide off at CT6, but it was not a cohesive slab. I also had a very irregular fracture at CT26 at 35cm, so nothing that really alarmed me for today, but not trust inspiring.

Example of the lack of cohesion of the new snow to the harder surfaces on NE-W aspects. The snow was just sliding off on slopes 40 degrees+. Some of these sluffs did pick up some steam on steeper slopes and even picked up some old snow in one of the chutes above tele heaven. but nothing propogated out into bigger slabs.

You can see some of the bigger sluffs under the cliffs in this pic. It was magical up in the alpine. Absolutely quiet, and I did not see anyone else or any other tracks - weird to have Gold Basin all to myself.

For danger ratings, I'm on the fence for tomorrow, if we get >1" SWE, especially with wind, I think it might go high.

The new snow was quite light and pretty fun to ski. Underneath was quite variable with many areas below timberline unsupportable with facets - not fun to break in. Once I got to timberline I started hitting old wind buff surfaces underneathe. The new snow did not bond well to these hard surfaces and there were many sluffs, some almost reaching a D2. However, it was striking how some entire faces had the new snow just slump off. This was pretty manageable for today, but it doesn't bode well for the snow we are supposed to get over the next 48 hours and might make fore quite the avalanche cycle depending on how the storm comes in.