Headed out this morning to see how the coverage was in Upper and Main Days Fork. After touring in West Bowl yesterday, I was quite optimistic that we would find good conditions. Unfortunately, the winds had their way with the new snow and everything was either a hard wind slab or very wind affected. Even in the more sheltered areas the snow was damaged by the wind. To make matters worse the wind had scoured the snow in many places, which created thin spots with exposed or thinly covered rocks.

The winds were generally out of the south and south west and were at the low end of moderate. Not a significant amount of transport in the areas that we were in, but we could see plumes of snow loading the Cardiac area. It snowed for about an hour during the mid morning, but never really accumulated to anything.

The wind slabs from yesterday morning had been buried by fresh wind drifts that were about 2-4 inches deep. We experienced a small amount of cracking in the fresh wind drifts, but nothing seemed very cohesive. The old wind drifts from yesterday seemed to be mostly settled out. We probed around the old slabs and didn't find any soft snow below them. However, as Mark mentioned in his obs from yesterday, hitting a thin spot on one of these slabs could potentially pull out the rest of the slab above you. We kept this advice in our minds and stayed off of steep slopes with obvious wind loading from the previous day.

Total snow depth in Upper and Main Day's Fork ranged from 8" to 24". The lower portion of Main Days is very thin and downright cringe worthy. The south-east facing section of Upper Days is a little better, but the lower portion also has a lot of rocks to navigate. Ultimately, we retreated to Upper Silver Fork where the snow was consistently deeper and softer.

Overall it seemed like the danger in Days Fork was moderate with pockets of considerable on steep north facing slopes containing wind drifted snow. The wind slabs from yesterday should continue to settle out, but taking a ride through the jagged rocks in both Main and Upper days would turn you into a pile of shredded cheese. Not cool.

With continued winds in the forecast overnight, I think the danger will remain about the same.