Went for a recon tour in the middle fork today to see how this last storm's snow had settled in, and look for wind loading. Due to extensive bushwhacking, we only made it up to 5100', so this is not an observation for upper elevations! We had calm winds and cloudy/obscured skies, with cold (0-9 degrees F) temps.
We dug a quick pit on an east facing aspect at 5000', and found a right-side up snowpack of 130 cm with 40+ cm of new snow and little to no evidence of wind loading at that elevation and aspect. We had planned to look at the faceted layer near the base of the snowpack, but our digging area had too much brush in the bottom 30 cm of the snowpack to get any real feedback.
Our conclusion was to watch out for dry loose avalanches and sluffs (which we saw natural instances of, if only in very steep terrain) and enjoy this window of powder skiing before the next wind event!
Bushwhacky!
