On our tour today, took Milly Lift and skined/hiked up Stupid Chute to the top of Wolverine Bowl. Wolverine Cirque and Highway to Heaven/Twin Lakes Pass were very nicely filled in for this time of year but, even from across the cirque, you could see top loading and cross loading throughout the area. On our hike up Stupid Chute, we pulled out a small windslab ~3in deep and could feel a couple more windloaded areas. In Wolverine Bowl, there was little evidence of wind loading. The winds were beginning to pick up as we left and the next front was moving in. With the amount of loose snow on the ground, coupled with the winds and snow expected overnight, I would expect this problem to increase into Saturday.

The new snow seemed to have bonded well with what was on the ground. Sluff running in the new snow was a bit of an issue as well as isolated storm slabs in terrain by rocks. My partner triggered a small storm slab at the top of the crux in Tuna Chute which ran to the apron, size D1/R2. The sluff was running fast and long but not entraining a lot of new snow with it. Sluff management will be important especially as more snow is on the way overnight.