Winds over the Question Mark

Toured up to 7400 feet in JFS Canyon this afternoon:

• 2-5 inches snow overnight with snowfall tapering by late morning. Another inch or so this afternoon with mostly overcast conditions alternating with short periods of broken skies.
• Moderate SW winds above 5000 feet were actively loading northerly/easterly aspects near the ridgecrests and building new wind slabs. But ski cuts on small test slopes only resulted in some minor cracking save for one instance with a 15-20 foot long shooting crack in a 8-10 inch thick slab (photo).
• Avoided wind slabs in wind-sheltered terrain on a northerly aspect and found good stability and nice riding.
• Dug a quick test pit on a northerly aspect at 6400 feet. HS=250 cm. 2/1 crust was 50 cm down from surface with no other crusts present above it (or below it to the bottom of the pit another ~80 cm down). Crust was about 3 cm thick with a 1-2 cm thick layer of facets above and below it. Poor structure but ECTX with the stability test.