Went up Butler to see if I could find any soft settled powder without windslabs, trapdoor wind skin or hard slabs, found a little bit, but only in the most protected terrain. I wanted to take a look at the surface snow before the next little storm. At mid elevations, the warm temps today combined with the constant wind all week has taken care of any surface hoar. The snow was dense and sum what cakey in protected terrain, with windslabs and wind crust in the more exposed terrain. I would think most of the windslabs have pretty much settled out by now but there could be a few hidden traps that might still be active tomorrow. I would think the new snow would bond well to most surfaces except for the southerly aspect with a slick sun crust. I'm still finding some poor structure on mid elevation slopes that haven't avalanched already, but that problem seems dormant for the time being. Doesn't sound like a whole lot of snow or water weight is expected in the coming storm, but hopefully it will come in with some density which would improve the skiing in smoother terrain. Photo: dense settled snow in protected terrain