There was plenty of evidence of the Big Wind with needles/branches down in the trees and upside down tracks on the ridges, but the upside to strong winds is that in addition to creating skitchy windslabs they can also pound snow into place. On the leeward sides that were protected the snow was well bonded; on quicky hand pits we got an un-clean shear about a foot down, and a cleaner one 6" below that, but was solid enough that we felt fine skiing avalanche angles (particularly where the windward side of the slope was heavily treed, so there hadn't been as much snow available for transport and cornice construction). We did not ski the marquee big NW facing bowl; looked like a lot of wind damage at least at the top, which is understandable given that the bowl seems to be a catcher's mitt for all of Nevada's wind, but was probably safe and edgeable enough and maybe even nice down a bit lower.

We did see one point release on a due south slope that ran a couple hundred feet, but it was full sun today and with what appears to be a bit of cloud cover on Saturday that probably won't be an issue, if one happens to choose a crust-busting south exit.