The wind did blow.

Today we went into the northern Whitefish Range to confirm yesterday's blown precipitation forecast and look for a buried persistent weak layer that our Canadian friends to the north are finding.

• We found up to 2 inches of new snow from yesterday and last night.
• We dug a snowpit on a north aspect at 6800'. We found the Dec 2. crust with moist, rounding facets above. Like other places in our forecast area, this layer was unreactive in instability tests. The consensus was the snowpack is strong and right-side-up. 
• There was no shortage of evidence that a strong wind event occurred recently. We tested small features with ski cuts and stomping and got no results. Wind slabs from previous days appeared to be unreactive in the area we traveled. 

We felt comfortable stepping out into steep, wind-sheltered terrain given the lack of recent snow and no observed red flags.