Only traveled to 9K and there was more snow than I had anticipated with around 2 inches of water weight. The surface facets from the end of January were not bonding well with the new storm snow. These grains are well preserved and are 2mm in size in the pit I dug. This layer will take some time to stabilize, which won't be anytime soon. I was curious to find the deeper persistent weaknesses were not reactive in ECT's. This being said, I still would be respectful of these weaknesses; a slide breaking in the January or December snow would be catastrophic. The new snow/old snow interface failed with easy to easy/medium effort with clean, planar shears. I did find one weakness in the new snow about 8" down on a density inversion.

Trailbreaking and snowmobiling were relatively easy and supportable considering the amount of new snow we received. Wintry conditions today.

The strong winds and amount of water weight we've gotten in the last 36 hours are enough to make me step back and take note but with MORE wind and snow expected, it's pretty obvious it's not the time to push it. Tomorrow, considerable danger in steep, mid elevation terrain and high danger at and above treeline, especially in terrain on the north half of the compass. Tread lightly.