We rode today in southeast Idaho on east-facing slopes between 8,500 to 9,500 feet in elevation. It was hard to find anything that was not tracked out by snowmobilers and that still held decent snow. We searched for a while and finally found some decent riding.
The shallow snowpack was heavily faceted top to bottom. Conditions varied, decent turns in the deep faceted snow, but occasional rock-hard wind board in gullies and drifted zones. You can see those rock hard zones in the attached pictures. You could usually see the smooth windboard snow but sometimes it snuck up on us and took us off our feet. All the sun-affected slopes were crusty. No recent avalanches were observed other than dry sluffs in steep terrain. But the facets are going to be a major problem in the future, the snowpack is extremely weak. Even with the variable snow, it was still a great crisp bluebird day in the mountains with only a slight breeze.
