South of Teton Pass

Very windy out there this afternoon. Snow totals from this morning's storm appear to be on the low end of forecasted amounts. I found 4-5 inches of dense new snow in sheltered terrain. Most slopes have seen some degree of wind effect. Drifts up to a foot deep were present along wind loaded ridges. Some exposed slopes were scoured down to the 12/10 rain crust.

The new snow appears to be bonding better than expected to the underlying rain crust in this area. Granted, there really wasn’t enough new snow south of the pass to provide too much information on potential reactivity. Still, l didn’t observe any significant cracking while walking through obvious wind slabs. Test slopes did not produce any moving snow. No avalanches in steep terrain on Glory (Twin, Shovel), or on Taylor. Despite the better than expected stability, numerous hand shears in wind loaded areas revealed a ~4 finger slab that failed easily, or with moderate amounts of pressure. Additional snowfall will shed more light on the potential for avalanches involving the 12/10 rain crust. This will be the layer to track in the coming days.