I wanted to cover a couple of different aspects quickly today. The main concern today was select areas with wind drifted snow. After such high winds Thursday night, almost the entire range saw surface damage. It left a stout wind crust on most aspects and large cornices on most ridgelines. What I primarily wanted to investigate today was the interface between the new storm snow, and the wind damaged surface. The new snow instabilities seemed to settle out quickly, and I didn't see much happen on top of the stout crust. When we stuck our shovel blades in the snow, we were able to get a collapse above and below a 3cm wind crust which currently lies directly under the new snow(ECTN20 & ECTN23), but we could not get any propagation. Overall the snowpack looked pretty right side up.

Tomorrow I expect the main concern to be areas of wind drifted snow at upper elevations - this includes being aware of cornices, or isolated features at mid-elevations. It was the first day of sunshine, and the first day that the snowpack was able to take a break in about 10 days. I was glad to see that it seemed to handle the load well.

Photos of signs of wind drifted snow, scouring, and cornices.