Hanging Canyon

Variable snow surfaces

New snow and gusty northerly winds formed dense wind drifted snow or scoured the new snow revealing the old firm bed surface (widespread crusts). Wind drifted slabs in the upper elevations were up to 16" deep, but lacked widespread reactivity where we traveled. The main concern were small pockets that produced shooting cracks on large drifts. For the most part, the gusty nature of the recent wind create slabs that lacked continuity across terrain features. However, new snow amounts increased drastically above 10,000' where you could find more widespread slabs on confined leeward terrain (SW-S-SE aspects).  New snow was bonding well to old snow surfaces with resistant hand shear tests. Wind slabs were failing on mid-storm density breaks 6-10" deep.  

Middle elevations: 2-6" of new snow

Upper elevations: 6-12" of new snow up to 11,500'.

Cloud cover cleared earlier than forecasted in the Tetons. New snow on slopes facing the sun became more unstable throughout the day. Southerly aspects in upper elevations remained relatively dry and were not completely wet by 15:00, despite the strong solar radiation in April. Snow surfaces softened on east- south aspects below 9k allowing for edgeable corn turns.

Expect wet avalanche problems tomorrow with clear skies and warming temperatures during the day. 

Plenty of signs of wind loading based on snow texture with cracking on large wind drifts above 10,000'. We saw one very small natural dry loose avalanche that failed as new snow destabilized due to solar radiation in a confined coulior surrounded by rocks at 9700' S aspect.