Definitely 6 good turns.

We went into the southern Whitefish Range to see the storm end and feel out the storm slab problem. We were delighted to see that snow totals exceeded what nearby remote weather stations were reporting. 

Low elevatations

• We dug a pit at 4800 feet to find a snowpack height of 43 inches. Roughly 30 inches of that height is new and recent snow.
• Snowpit tests showed non propagating results with hard force roughly 10 inches below the surface. 
• This new and recent snow is sitting on a stout crust with weaker snow at the ground. 

Middle elevation

• We used our snowmobiles to test the snowpack on steep road cuts and received no results. 
• Observed no cracking or collapsing.

Upper elevations 

• Dug a pit at 6900' on a SE aspect and found good stability. We had non propagating results with hard force on a layer of preserved stellars within the storm snow about  2 feet down. 
• We did find a layer of facets sandwiched between two crusts at the bottom of the snowpack. The weak layer structure worries me for future big loading events. 
• No results ski cutting steep break overs and observed no shooting cracks. 
• Exposed ridges nearby appeared to be holding more rounded, slab like features that were directly below cornices. These kind of features would be where trouble is lurking.

With the lack of any red flags, we felt comfortable skiing steep, short pitches one at a time. 

pictures soon.