Today's primary concern was wind drifted snow. Active loading was easily visible on ridelines and you could certainly feel it as well. NE-E-SE were the most effected in the area we traveled today with wind triggering a small natural in W willow on a S aspect (SS-N-D0.5 I) pictured below. Cracking easily observed if you skinned on or near freshly loaded terrain.

PWL is still widespread in the forecasted area. We dug on a SE aspect at 9640' near W willow to inspect basal facets. HS 215 with fewer than expects crusts mid pack, a stout 1F slab more than 1m thick in the center of the pack capped the 1F-4F basal facets that were about 10cm thick and they were wet. You could make a solid snowball with these grains. This is just one data point and I would not say it is completely representative of the entire ranch for that aspeect and elevation through it did bring a smile to our group. Another hole at 9600' NE in W Willow showed an HS of 215cm. The basal facet layer was 45cm thick, dry, and grains were about 2mm. I decided to do a hybrid ECT to show the group the consequences of triggering a slide on this layer (video posted below) Deep ECTpM on faceted grains down 170cm. We also did a PST yielding PST 120/170 END down 170 on faceted grains. This is a low likelyhood high consequence scenario. We still have poor structure and structure trumps strength every time.