Few

Quick afternoon tour today. Going to focus on surface conditions as poor snowpack structure has been covered well by recent obs. New snow seemed to fall as an even 2-3” blanket over the whole mountain. Very little wind affect to the snow that fell Sat PM. New snow was mostly graupel and heavily rimed snowflakes. Substantial surface hoar growth already on the surface. Above about 8000’, the new snow appears to be sitting on a widespread wind crust. Main avalanche terrain was already in the shadows (ie flat light) and I could not make out any recent avalanche activity in Cutler Basin between Ben Lomond and Willard. I (very conservatively) tickled the edges of several small slopes approaching 30 degrees. The result was consistent collapsing and whumphing each time. I also got significant collapsing on open, low angled slopes. It may be the most collapsing I’ve felt in this area in recent memory. For what it’s worth, the collapses seemed somewhat localized and did not seem to travel very far (not like the long, thundering collapses one might hear in Colorado), but still very significant.