Little bit of wind and a whole lot of crust

We went to the western side of the Swan Range to monitor the upper snowpack and surface conditions before the return to winter weather.

• The big story of the day remains recently formed crusts at or near the surface. On south aspects the crust was hardest (Pencil +) and up to 6 inches thick. On northerly aspects, the crust was thicker and harder in open areas and on steeper terrain, but was 2 inches thick and 1 finger hard at most. In north facing trees, and on gentle slopes, the crust was at its thinnest, softest, and most breakable. We found only dry snow under the crusts.
• We tested the upper snowpack on a mid elevation, northwest aspect and found no weak layers and got no test results above the crusts buried in early February.
• We found between .5 and 1 inch of graupel on the surface in most places. The exception being where recent winds had scoured the surface.
• Despite moderate ridgetop winds, we saw only light blowing snow because there was little snow on top of the surface crusts left to transport. We did find very isolated, very thin wind deposits just in the lee of favored ridges. Under these soft drifts was a surprisingly slick wind board.
• We expect an increase in avalanche danger this week proportional to the amount of new snow and wind.
• With crusts locking down the snowpack in the area, we skied very steep terrain on a variety of aspects. We were slow and cautious because the fast and hard crust has created the potential for slide for a life situation in the event of a fall in the wrong terrain. As we skinned back up a slope we made sure to set our track so as not to put us directly under larger, looming cornices.