Fried Chicken

Toured east of WMR to check out how the snowpack has developed after the last 11 days of snow and wind. We found:

• Few signs of instability, except one sluff that stayed on the surface and a few short cracks around our skis. Stomping on steep test slopes produced no cracking.
• Up to  90 cm of recent snow that is right-side up (progressively harder with depth) with few distinct sliding planes or interfaces. 
• Above about 6000 feet, this recent snow sits on a 10-15 inch thick layer of hard, refrozen snow. 
• Little sign of recent wind drifting or wind loading on treed ridges and nearby openings.
• Around 5800 feet on a sunny slope, the refrozen snow near the ground was less than 6 inches thick and soft. This was the weakest snow we saw, though it is generally on well-anchored slopes.

We experienced snow showers until early afternoon, with improved visibility after that. Winds were calm to light. 

With no evidence of unstable snow or hazardous slabs, we felt comfortable skiing a slope of 30-35* with a steeper, convex roll at the bottom.