After being out at Powder Mountain yesterday, I was curious to see how Monte Cristo fared in the storm. Luckily, it also seemed to be favored by the system and picked up about a foot or more of new medium density snow. It coated most surfaces well and greatly improved riding conditions, offering supportable travel on most aspects. If your pole punched through, it was easy to feel the facets beneath, kind of trap door esque, but it was generally pretty easy to stay on top of or within the recent snow.
Along the road, there were a few small chunks of snow that seemed reactive, breaking as shallow slabs with sled cuts and cracking.
Once we made it out toward Whiskey and Beer Hill, we had the first tracks in the meadow and did not notice any obvious signs of collapsing. Digging a quick pit lower on the slope near 8500' on a NE aspect, we found over 10 inches of new snow sitting on weak faceted snow. The weakest snow was right at the interface, with F hard small grain facets. Unlike yesterday, I did not find an obvious graupel layer within the new snowfall. Even with the weak interface, we were unable to get propagation in our pit, though I suspect that was location-dependent. Add a bit of wind, and I would expect to see propagation.
I think the setup is there. I would be suspicious of any northwest to northeast-facing terrain where there has been wind or more than a foot of new snow.
Awesome to run into so many folks out in Monte Cristo, including observers and just folks enjoying the new snow.
Visible new snow, old snow interface at the pit - 8500' NE Aspect
ECTN15 down on the small grain facets, at the new snow old snow interface.
Signs of some wind texture below roll overs and rock bands
Old debris visible under the recent snowfall
