Wind Loading

Cracking

Rapid Warming

We avoided any steep slopes at first because the widespread wind slabs looked like they would pop out without much provocation. But as we started small and worked our way up, we found that they were not very reactive and they were much softer than they looked. They were like one of those dogs that looks real scary but turns out to be very friendly and nice. You could make nice turns right through them in soft, dry snow. What a pleasant surprise. I couldn't resist, though, when skiing down to do some good ski cuts through obvious wind deposits on several very small break-over test slopes about 40 degrees or more in steepness I was able to pop out a couple small, ankle-biters out on each of our runs, 2-6 inches deep, 10 feet wide that moved 10-15 feet. Certainly not big enough to fill out an avalanche observation. But yes, in larger, steeper, more consequential terrain, they could catch a person. So Moderate Danger will probably cover it today, but they will likely settle quickly. The strong, spring sun did make much of the snow on the sunny aspects a bit soggy, but not enough to cause problems, at least where we were, perhaps worse at low elevations.