Observation: Yellow Jacket

Travel today was from 6k-9500'. Lower elevations are still thin and take a little patience on the exits. I guess the good news it's to cold to melt anything out. Once we got above 8000' the terrain looks like a normal winter.

Yellow jacket crowns are still visible and only partly filled back in from the recent new snow. Snow around 9000' , NW aspects is about 4' deep and has buried facets the continue to gain strength.

Today was the first day I stepped back into some minor avalanche terrain that we could manage. We rode due N and NE with no signs of instability in deep cold powder. I am still avoiding big and complex avalanche terrain.

At all elevations in the sheltered locations are still holding cold powder. On solar aspects, a couple inches of of low density powder is sitting on a sun crust. At higher elevations, cold deep snow was present everywhere.