Climbed up to observe the Toledo slide and investigate the surprising lack of results just over the ridge on Flagstaff face / shoulder. Large natural slide in Toledo but no results with 2 howitzer shots in Flag Face / Shoulder. Have to anticipate there was some wind shadowing from Toledo at play that kept terrain in the Emma's from becoming quite as slabby or connected as just around the corner. Encountered our FR/Rime/MF crust on the skinner while gingerly trying to avoid any exposed or loaded areas. Test pits revealed just that, much softer and looser snow on the more E faceing aspect with a HN from 8-20'' with isolated deeper, stiffer drifts. First ski cut on top of Flag produced no results while another just lower pulled out a relatively small piece that ran a decent distance. Would call this a 1.5 but with the gully feature probably capable of burying you. SS-ASc-R2-D2 . Recenet avalanches appear to be still running on low density snow from early in the storm, leaving behind some of the previous loose surface snow just above the crust.

Of note to me and not mentioned in the forecast is the power of the sun with this lighter new snow and our recent crust situation. I'd expect to see Lw activity as well as our soft slabs gaining strength and cohesion and running more easily on this old crust with todays sun. I expect a few hours of solar effect helped the slab thicken and was directly responsible in my ability to pull out this small piece after the artillery was unable to trigger.