"The Set-up"

Days off tour into the Jewel and Noisy Basins . Took some time to look at surface conditions and do some quick snowpack tests in advance of an expected weather change later this week.

• Future weak layers are growing like mad in Jewel and Noisy. We saw surface hoar 2-3cm in sheltered areas, and widespread 1-5mm surface hoar on shaded slopes up to 6000'. There are patches of surface hoar at upper elevations as well. Surface snow is faceting on sheltered slopes at all elevations. These weak grains overlay the rain crust from earlier in the week up to about 5800'.
• Sun crusts are developing on solar aspects up to 7000'. These crusts were not thawing under sunny skies at noon, although we did see some small rollers on sunny aspects with no crust.
• Snowpack tests had no propagating results - both on an E aspect where the pack was deep and strong, and on a W aspect where the pack was shallow and faceted.
• Good visibility allowed us to look around at the surrounding peaks. We could find no signs of recent slab avalanches.
• No signs of instability. No wind.