Quick report
Weather: Light wind from the North with moderate gusts. Precip: Flurries on an off throughout the day, no accumulation: Skies: overcast. No blowing snow noted. Steady temps below 0 C. Objective: Ascend west ridge and descend NW drainage below 7800 ft. Determine affect of new wet precip on development of surface ice crust formation, if windslab activity had progressed over night and look for presence of buried surface hoar. Results: Thin unsupportive ice crust noted below 6200 ft on W aspect was present throughout the day. Signs of wind transported snow on west ridge noted at 7600-7800 ft but no slab instability found on hand shear tests. Compression test at 7300 ft on NW aspect was CTM with failure from graupel layer buried under 20 cm new snow. No buried surface hoar noted. No signs of avalanche activity throughout the day. Implications: With no instability fro wind slab on West aspect and no red flags we felt comfortable skiing in avie terrain ATL/BTL.