Wimpies

Heavy band of snow S2 during morning hours while getting the trail in with a few friends, with minimal to no wind. Very reactive storm snow and skier triggered D1-D1.5’s were frequent on any steeper rollover. Interestingly the most reactive aspects were E to NE in non wind loaded features, with failures 30-40cm down on preserved stellars - a product of some upside down snow and slight hardness changes. The steeper solar aspects ironically were holding in place, however as the day wore on and the snow took on a bit of heat - I would guess that with a bit more load and some wind (both in the upcoming weather forecast) the solar aspects with a crust will begin to show more of its card here. At 9,825’ SE, I was finding approximately 60cm HST since our high pressure. Down 30cm was a preserved stellar layer and down 60cm were some small grained facets (noted these very slippery feeling atop the crust at the mid elevations too while skiing).

Additionally, the main gully near the McRib avalanched naturally. 30-40cm deep, ran almost 1,000’. 

Bottom line, the snowpack has been getting steadily more reactive as we’ve been adding load while also creating new layers from the ebb and flow of these bands of snow combined with sporadic bursts of sun and heat.