We did not observe any blowing and drifting snow today. We did observe this small natural avalanche in the Horse Creek Chutes. The avalanche probably occurred on Sunday or Monday during the strong Northerly wind event. This avalanche looks to be quite shallow (maybe only a few inches deep). A slide like this might knock a skier off their feet, but is certainly not deep enough to bury a person. See the avalanche obs for more details. At this point, it seems unlikely for a skier to trigger an avalanche like this in wind-drifted snow. If triggered, these avalanches would be small and limited to isolated terrain in the upper elevations. This terrain is very hard to access right now with the thin cover.

Today we broke trail in virgin snow for most of the day. We crossed a variety of aspects, and made it up to about 11,100 ft in Horse Creek. We did not experience any cracking or collapsing. We did not see any recent avalanches breaking into old snow. The 8" of snow that fell on Saturday (with 1" of water) is not behaving like a slab. It is not cohesive. This layer is already starting to break down and become faceted. We performed an extended column test and got ECTX. While the overall snow pack remains weak, we still do not have a true slab in place to cause avalanches. I have some concern for slopes near tree line and above that harbor a weak snow pack that have also been loaded up by the wind. On these slopes it is possible for the weight of a skier or rider to trigger an avalanche breaking deeper into old snow.