We spent a lot of time investigating the bonding between the new and old snow and looking for any slabs in the new snow before committing to skiing steeper lines. There was around a foot of new snow, very low density and right side up. A brief hand pit on a SW aspect suggested good bonding between the new and old snow- the new snow was not eager to slide when I pulled on it after isolating a small block. Jumping on a steep SW test slope had no effect. The story on shady aspects (NE-NW) was slightly different, with a bit less bonding happening at the new-old snow interface. Small but long-running sluffs were noted throughout Cardiff, some triggered by us, some natural. A shovel tilt test produced a mostly planar (part of the column broke off) shear on this interface. The mitigating factor here was the total lack of cohesiveness in the new snow. We noted no slabs whatsoever, and it was clear that despite some lack of bonding, the only problem this caused was loose dry slides.

After seeing some mention of NSFs in other observations, we wanted to investigate these for ourselves before hopping on steep slopes. Three snow pits on NW, N, and NE aspects showed a right-side-up snowpack with no obvious layers. The bottom foot or so of snow was damp in most places, which made it easy to tell when the snowpack was a foot or less deep while skinning. I didn't take the time to run my crystal card through any of the pits, but it was clear that there was no defined faceted layer- I could make a snowball out of samples of snow taken from all heights. Moreover, the other signs of facets, like a slightly greyer layer, or larger crystals, were all absent. Compression tests produced no results in any of the pits, with the column simply compressing until I was pounding on a dense block of snow from my shoulder. Given that we'll probably see these developing facets buried even more this weekend and next week, I don't expect them to develop into a reactive PWL.