Lotta Wind-affected Snow, Not A Lotta Slabs

Quick day off tour in the Central Swan.

• We found lots of evidence of wind drifting: big cornices on ridges, scouring and soft riming on windward slopes, and a few small wind slabs in favored locations.
• Light to moderate south winds lightly blowing snow onto leeward slopes all day.
• Cornices were reactive, but the slopes below were generally stable. We dropped a sizable cornice onto a leeward slope with only a little sluffing as the result.
• The cloud deck lifted for a little while and we saw no signs of recent avalanche activity.
• Leeward (north, northeast, and east) slopes have about a foot of low density snow available for transport it the winds shift to the northeast with the arctic intrusion.
• We felt comfortable skiing steep, mid elevation slopes one at a time and had only minor sluffing to manage.