After yesterday's ferocious dousing of snow and the overnight wind we went out to see what it was like. We found really cakey snow even in relatively sheltered areas; even though what we were breaking trail through was not that deep, it was stiff enough to be pretty arduous. And indeed, because it wasn't that deep despite getting who-even-can-remember how much snow we've received in the past week, that we were sitting on top of what was apparently a supportable slab. And in addition to the feet of new snow that fell, the exposed ridges were swept clean of new snow and the hulking cornices indicated that the lee sides were no doubt way overloaded. We dug a few quick hand pits and had a couple of decent release planes down a footish and again at 2 feetish, but given the snow and the loading and as Dave mentioned today the many changes that the snowpack has gone through in the past week it's a bit confusing and overwhelming. That said, tiny test slopes didn't go and we had no remotely triggered avalanches in an area that is conducive to that. Adding the warmth and the solar component of today to that was a compounding factor; it was easy to stay off solars and north facing stayed mostly powder - or at least chowder - til our mid-afternoon exit, but with the clouds arriving in the afternoon it seemed to be greenhousing and there well could be a crust on all aspects below about 9k tommorrow.

And then how will 4 more feet of snow on top of that react in a coupla days??!! Eek!