Not so favored

I joined the Going-to-the-Sun Road forecaster to check out how last night weak storm and today's convective showers (image) played out. 

• The storm did not favor areas near the Continental Divide. Only 1-2" of new snow at mid elevations. Though convective showers brought bursts of moderate snowfall, accumulations were underwhelming. Winds calm-light.
• A wind-exposed ridge had eroded drifts (image), evidence of the strong easterly winds early this past week. These drifts were shallow and soft and did not posse an avalanche hazard.
• We did not find the dry, loose surface snow I found Saturday in the Flathead Range. Solar radiation in the past few days has left a 2" thick melt-freeze crust under the new snow (image). This crust sits on an inch or so of dry, faceted snow (image) and cracks easily, particularly when undercut. A 2nd layer of facets exists above the very hard refrozen grains from late March. These layers pose no threat unless loaded (video).
• Despite the cloud cover, the new snow was moist on our descent, with small rollerballs as we turned. The crust was most supportable on steeper, sunnier slopes. Less so on lower-angled and shadier slopes, where stem christies were the turn d'jour.