Made a trip to the Meadow chutes today thinking that they lacked the surface hoar that is pockety but being found in more N facing sheltered terrain. Upon digging down on a east facing slope at 9000ft discovered no surface hoar or really any buried facets. There was about a foot of light density snow sitting on top of the 2 to 3 inches of denser snow that fell Sunday night into Monday, then more lighter density sitting on top of a stout melt freeze crust, when I isolated the column it took a bit of prying from the back to get it to shear, the shear was on top of the crust and below the denser layer of snow in the light density that fell before Sunday, not a very energetic shear. We worked our way into the steeper lines, up to 35 degrees with no cracking, collapsing or avalanching. Also noted many steeper lines getting skied in Days Fork. I did get some good visibility and noted some large avalanche crowns in the High Pockets in Cardiff, the E facing Catchers Mitt, and another large crown in the Swedish Corner of Butler Basin.

Photo: snow pit with the stout crust isolated, stubborn shear on top of the crust in the lighter density snow.

I would think with the sun coming out tomorrow for the first time in quite awhile and all the new snow considerable would be appropriate tomorrow on steep sun affected slopes, and moderate in the higher elevation wind exposed terrain that does not have buried surface hoar, The jury is still out on the mid and low elevation N facing protected terrain.