Going to echo basically every observation from the past 10 days. Snow surfaces remain variable. On the northern half of the compass, the snow surface has become very weak in areas without ski tracks, which has made for enjoyable soft skiing. The catch is that in steep terrain, this weak surface snow is easily sluffing and beginning to entrain more snow. Anywhere with old tracks is crusty. On solar aspects, the snow surface shows every variety of crust from supportable to breakable, making for challenging skinning.
Along ridgelines and even some mid-elevation sub-ridges, there was obvious transport occurring today, leading to a few shallow, sensitive pockets of wind-drifted snow by the end of the tour. Nothing well connected, but with sustained winds, I would expect more connected, small soft slabs of wind-drifted snow at upper elevations.
Down in the meadows and drainages, the massive surface hoar continues to grow.
Wind along East Bowl Pass Ridgeline
More hoar
