Early morning to noon offered good cold snow powder riding above 9500. As the day progressed the cold snow line continued to rise and by mid afternoon these kind of good riding conditions only existed above 10200. Intermittent periods of patchy sunshine allowed for rapid greenhousing at the mid elevations around 1200 hours. The 5 inches of new snow that fell overnight was much lighter than the snow that fell on Thursday and in areas where the old snow surface was smooth the riding was the best. From noon on the snow got very wet and sticky. Isolated patches of wind scour was observed on E and NE facing terrain features in the upper elevation bowl areas.
In the early morning hours Loose Dry Avalanches and sluffing was occurring, but not a big issue. Wet Loose became a factor as the day progressed and the temperatures rose. Both of these were manageable. Wet Loose on Saturday may be a more widespread issue when the sunshine comes out in full force.
The large cornices continue to be something to avoid with the continual loading and sustained warm temperatures. Of note, control work on Friday was able to dislodge significant amounts of these cornice formations.
