Seemed like a real winter day today, travel was up Willow Heights across West Monitor a run or two on the sub-ridge then across South Monitor to USA Bowl and out. The new snow seemed fairly well behaved, there was some long running sluffs in West Monitor produced from cornice fall but no real slab activity noted, keep in mind the visibility was extremely poor. The cornices in both S and W Monitor were extremely sensitive and would crack out on approach but didn't seem to produce any avalanche activity either. Like I stated before the wind loading was keeping me suspect of the steeper lines which I avoided. The new light density snow was not adding a whole lot of weight but when you combine new snow with rapid wind loading creating stiffer drifts the weight starts to add up quickly.

Photos: sensitive cornices breaking upon approach but producing no avalanche activity, cracking in the wind drifts on the ridge line, and trail breaking through deep snow which is a oddity this year

Moderate sounds about right for today but if the wind continues to blow and we get more snow tonight the hazard might increase