Skiing and riding conditions remain quite good thanks to the three inches of snow that fell Sunday night. Solar aspects are dust on crust, but the shady slopes are holding up and offer soft, fun conditions. It helps that temperatures stayed cold on Monday and the sun was in and out of the clouds keeping the snow cold and light on the Northerlies. People have been taking advantage of the generally stable snow conditions and have been pushing up into high alpine terrain. Maggie Nielson and company took a trip to Corkscrew Glades on Monday and Sam Van Wetter was up high in Gold Basin over the weekend. Read their observations here.

The snowpack is mostly stable, but I am still suspicious of lingering wind drifts on slopes that face North and East above treeline. In my travels yesterday I found some unstable drifts in isolated terrain features in the more extreme terrain. For more details, read my observations here. Older drifts have been covered by three inches of new snow, and may be harder to notice. Old hard drifts often produce hollow, drum-like sounds when you walk on them, and this is a good indication of trouble. If you are getting into big lines in the alpine, be on the lookout for hard slabs of wind drifted snow.

I encountered wind drifted snow in the steep gullies just below the ridgeline, a likely place to find trouble today.