We went out in the afternoon - because apparently that's when we can park at Alta? - in the anticipation that the cool temps and sun on the safer/non-PWL aspects would make the new snow spongy but not reactive, but was a bit mistaken. The top half of the south facing Emma ridges was sliding easily with ski cuts/turns, starting slowly and narrowly but picking up steam and more snow as it trundled down. Easily manageable by cutting out away from the fall line of the turns, but the debris got fairly stacked up by the time it stopped in the gullies a few hundred feet down; probably not enough to bury a person but certainly enough to drag someone unsuspecting down somewhat uncontrollably. Interestingly, it only seemed to happen on the upper half of the Emma ridge that we were on; down lower our ski cuts on comparable slopes did not run at all, even though off the top of the Silver Fork ridge they were running on surprisingly low angles (we skied down the exposed bed surface, that was previously a sun crust). Maybe a better bond of the ever-so-slightly warmer snow that fell at the slightly lower elevation than the ever-so-slightly colder snow that feel up higher? I dunno.

A bit frustrating to have so much fun north facing terrain feel kinda off-limits and then have the south side new snow go off so quickly, but so it goes in mid-March, even with a bit of clouds in the area to provide a bit of shade (or greenhousing?).

it will be a different beast Tuesday with the new snow being crusted from the dastardly sun, but I'd guess that the new snow could run again after it heats up with some unexpected provocation? The saving grace is that there's not a ton of new snow to once again corn up as the week heats up. Tho my eardrums are getting worked this season by skiing so much crust!