We headed up to Marion for two days (Jan 4&5) mostly to attempt to burn down our tent by cooking in it, but tangentially to go skiing as well. Prestorm surfaces on south aspects above 6k featured varying degrees of wind and temperature affected snow; we didn't find any reactivity there before or after the storm, which dropped 25cm in sheltered north aspects, 15cm on the valley floor, and a little less on wind affected S aspects.
We dug on a N aspect around 6400ft to assess how various persistent crust issues were faring. An interface perhaps 30cm down failed with moderate force and little energy; it propogated in one test and not another. Below the crust sandwich, which is buried almost a meter down, we saw failure on hard force but no propagation. Extra taps and some unscientific levering with the shovel got it to propogate with frightening haste, so we backed off and headed elsewhere.
Winds were sustained at ridgetops during our time up there, and gusts in the valley occasionally reached strong.
Temps were below freezing, with no crust formation above 5500ft.
