Quick report
Went up to the Monitors via W Willow the visibility was not great so I skied the sub-Ridge between the Monitors to get a read on the snowpack. It was instantly obvious that the layer of wet grains from yesterday had seized up with cold temperatures and the pack was no longer punchy or likely to wet slide. Yesterday’s density inversion was also a thing of the past, this left us with a foot of right side up new dense snow sitting on a frozen bed surface which I took as a green light to ski the Monitors. There were a few minor windslabs at the top but they were non-reactive to ski cuts, and sluffing was non-existent. The skiing was kinda like a magic carpet ride with about 6 inches of ski penetration, and easy carving if not somewhat slow. I would say the hazard in the terrain covered today was low but it was probably higher in areas that received more snow and wind.
photos: the ever looming cornices, skin trail filling back in from wind every time I used it, and a really fat snowpack for the PC Ridgeline
With more snow or more sun the hazard might be moderate tomorrow
Snowpack
The new snow had settled out to 10 to 12 inches of dense surfy snow containing quite a bit of graupel. The S facing was still dry down to 9000ft on my exit at 2:00pm