Cold and sunny

<p>Cold start in Core today but it warmed up nicely in the sun by mid afternoon. The new snow is still soft in the trees and heavily wind affected anywhere that the north or southwest wind could reach. Mod to strong southwest winds for most of the day, and we could see significant wind transport in the alpine. There was a small natural wind slab avalanche in the alpine just below a ridge top under a cornice, but we couldn’t see much of it. The snow in the trees on solar aspects was starting to get dense and consolidate even in the cold, and definitely expect it to get more cohesive over the next couple days. Sun is melting snow on sleds even at -15, so it’ll probably start affecting cornices soon with rising air temps. Some small cracks in soft snow but no releases even on very aggressive cuts on small features at treeline and below. Best snow was in wind loaded trees but there isn’t a huge amount in Core, more sheltered areas probably will hold more. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes, Dense trees, Steep slopes, Sunny slopes, Open trees.

Avalanche Conditions

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Hard, Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Windy, Sunny.