Tamarack

The snow on Tamarack today was basically as light as snow gets. This induced smiles for snow lovers but it also meant that despite there being at least a foot of new snow it was still possible to hit the old crust below. While my crew avoided hitting buried obstacles, that was also a concern. Breaking trail was difficult in a few locations due to loose unconsolidated snow on the icy crust below. We didn't observe any loose dry avalanches but the required structure definitely was present. Along the flat summit ridge there were large drifts of snow pushed there by the east winds that had stripped snow off the upper stretches of slopes like Hourglass and Proletariat. In addition the poor visibility made it challenging to see much in this above tree line terrain. While the upper portions of these slopes were largely stripped of fresh snow, lower down a foot or more of fresh unconsolidated snow was present.  

Very small wind  slabs observed in upper 300 feet. Small wind slabs on cross loaded NE slopes. Larger wind slabs on the flat top of the ridge from east winds.