Goal today was to get up high into upper LCC and BCC. Route was Wolverine Cirque -> Wolverine Bowl -> West-facing Microwave to summer road. Prior to any new snow and/or wind event it is important to know if and where any weak layers are present in the existing snowpack. I was last out touring on Saturday Feb 7 and found a solid snowpack with no persistent weaknesses, no reactive wind slabs, and apart from a few isolated spots in sheltered, upper elevation north-facing terrain, was finding no faceted snow at the surface. Therefore today I was only concerned with any storm snow weaknesses and how well the new snow bonded to the mostly-crusted old snow surface. Was also paying attention to pooled graupel as the storm snow contained quite a bit of graupel.
We were unable to get any cracking in the rather dense storm snow, and on steep north-east facing aspects ski cuts could only produce minor sluffs that would not run very far. The storm snow also seem well-bonded to the old snow surface on north through east aspects, although when exiting down steeper, west-facing terrain above the summer road, it was quite easy to ski cut several class 1 slides that were running on the slick sun crusts underneath, although not running very far. [Note - this is precisely the type of terrain that Drew is talking about in his Backcountry Code of Conduct.]
There was an observation from Monday that referred to graupel that fell during the day and that it may act as a weak layer. Below is a video of pooled graupel that I was finding below steeper cliff bands in Wolverine Cirque. Although it was fairly easy to find and up to 15 cms (6") deep in some places, it was only occurring in small pockets and there wasn't a reactive slab on top. It seems graupel also only forms a weak layer for a short period of time (few days) and tends to heal rapidly. [Please excuse the tongue-tied narrator.]
I felt today had the best ski conditions since the 50 cms (~20") that fell in mid January.
Was finding mostly a Low danger with a Moderate risk of small sluffs on steep south and west aspects where the storm snow was sliding on the slick suncrusts. Hazard going forward is for solar aspects to become active with warming temperatures.