Snow fell to sea level in much of the area overnight, welcome even though it was less than 5cm of moist to wet snow. We found 5 to 10cm of new moist snow above 700m, fluffy on most slopes and windloaded in a few small areas.

We observed no signs of instability except localized shooting cracks in the drifted areas, and minor SE windloading, also localized. The larger lee slopes had only a little snow and it was not yet windloaded enough to be sensitive.

Our slope and traveling tests found some cracking on fresh drifts and sensitive #2 Slab Test results (most of undermined area, clean). Hand shear tests picked out the same windloaded layers. But the larger slopes were still smooth, light and relaxed, up to at least 40°. The new snow improved the ride and kept skis on top of the breakable rime crust of three days ago, allowing easy turning.

It looks much more like winter now, but the same rocks are still lurking close below the surface and only a few spots have enough base to make continuous turns.

The surface layers are likely to turn into sugary faceted grains with the clear weather tonight, and could be a weak layer setup on the thaw crusts below if we get significant snowfall or windloading on them.

We rated the strength ~, the stress -, the energy -, and the structure +, where + is an indicator of a strong snowpack, - weak, and ~ neutral. Slab thickness is still fairly thin and distribution is very localized.