Limited wind slabby-slabby in Swan Range

Toured to Noisy Basin and the Picnic Lake area.  Blustery weather dominated the day, with a mix of a springtime atmosphere (aka "rain") in the parking lot and full-blown winter on the ridge top.

• Winds were steady from the SW with a few patches of clear skies ever so often.
• We found wind stiffened/ thickened snow (creamier feeling snow then a wind slab) on leeward slopes.
• Wind-thickened snow was approx 6-8 inches deep on leeward slopes.
• Wind-ward slopes had approx 2-3 inches of new snow and scoured in places.
• Sun crust from yesterday was buried underneath approx. 2-3 inches of snow in the protected areas.  The crust itself was less than 1 cm thick and was easily breaking while ascending and descending west aspects. This crust seemed to be spatially limited to areas that received direct solar impact yesterday.
• We were able to easily stomp on small cornices and get fresh buildup to peel off (see photo).
• We found one natural avalanche that we assumed happened yesterday.  Was an 8-10 inch thick wind slab that had slide directly below the cornice (D1).
• West facing slopes were gathering quite a bit of graupel on the surface.