Toured to 6500' in the Essex Area today. We were surprised to see it snowing lightly, but consistently, the majority of the day. The weather calmed, and skies started clearing, around 3 pm. I'd say about 2 inches fell throughout the day, perfect for transporting. We didn't venture above 6500' but with the steady wind, moderate-to-high gusts, and light snowfall it was likely quite reactive up high. Im sure it would have been possible to trigger a windslad with ease.. Starting the day, we were grateful for the couple of inches of new snow on top of a breakable crust... this crust was totally gone by 4800', but certainly made the ski out pretty physical. Fun, soft skiing was enjoyed on the east-to-northeast slopes that we skied, as they were protected from the wind. Again, we were psyched to avoid the Alpine given the stormy conditions and likely-really-sensitive snowpack!
The one pit we dug was at 6480' on a ESE facing slope. HS 190 cm in a somewhat windloaded area. We found 30 cm of storm snow, which didn't propagate but cracked at ECT12. The other layer of concern was 55 cm down- it didn't react until we applied hard force and again, no propagation,
