Toured up Essex Creek today. Saw many small natural avalanches on all aspects within the storm snow. Most of the S facing chutes off Essex mountain seemed to have slid yesterday. Unlike what was forecasted the weather was more fierce than expected (no sunny skies). When we started to ascend Snowshed the wind was blowing moderately with gusts up to 30-40 mph. We triggered a small, 4-inch wind slab around 5500 on a convex rollover while skinning. We dug a pit at 6200 feet on an NW aspect. Our results were ECT13, 20 cms down, ECT24 30 cms down and ECTP28, 40 cms down on the stout 2/1 crust. There was a lot of new snow available for transport and the winds were at it all day especially on more exposed slopes. While skiing we did not trigger any avalanches- until we got below 5500 feet where the ice crust was more prevalent. Here I triggered a very small pocket in the top 4 or 5 inches of snow. In general, the snow had a bit less energy than yesterday and we experienced less sloughing than the day prior as well.
