It is great to see snow return, and the dense snow made for surfy travel and riding conditions. Today, I was looking at:
Sensitivity in the storm snow - None. Despite a cohesive slab of dense snow, I got no cracking or any other signs of instability.
How well the storm snow bonded to the old snow surface - Excellent bond.
Evidence of wind drifting - Despite wind speeds gusting 15-25 mph during the same period of heaviest snowfall overnight, I saw no evidence of wind-drifting.
Supportabiity of the existing snowpack - The storm snow fell on top of a damp/moist/saturated snowpack. Once you get above about 9,800', the old snow surface is somewhat frozen in places. Below 9,500' the snowpack is wet, however the old snowpack is so dense it is still supportable and makes for easy travel.
Biggest concern I saw is that the storm snow is now disguising rocks (see photo below) and other "early-season" hazards. This is not your typical snow coverage for April 1, so you need to carefully look at the snow surface for buried rocks, branches, bushes, etc.
