Quick report
This was an evening trip to look at surfaces, stretch the legs, and keep the streak alive. I was most interested in how some of the very dense and rough windboard created during windy periods in January was looking prior to burial by the incoming storm. I found widespread faceting at the snow surface, even in what had been very dense, supportable windboard. In many places this faceting had completely eaten the windboard, in others the windboard still had some stiffness but was dramatically faceted on top and below. There is a link to a video showing this below. I did not see any avalanches that occurred within the previous few weeks. But I have been finding many relatively small avalanches that failed in completely sheltered terrain during the avalanche cycles that occurred around the new year (centered on 12/29 and 1/3). I included a photo of one such slide on this observation, I have found a few dozen of these in sheltered middle elevation terrain.
Weather
Clear skies above, calm to light winds.