Crusty or creamy

We rode the nothern Swan Range to track surface conditions before the storm starts to really impact our area tonight.

• We saw the effects of this past week's warming and winds. North and south aspects were dramatically different.
• Southerly aspects have a stout sun crust the stretches just into the upper elevation band where a rimed wind crust takes over the surface.
• The upper snowpack on south aspects consists of crusts at each interface between the various February storms. We got no propagating results while testing these layers.
• On the northerly, leeward, sides of ridgelines we found both soft and hard wind slabs between 2 and 10 inches deep that were stubborn on test slopes - we had to undercut them to get them to move. Slabs were sitting on much softer snow from last weekend. We also saw large cornices. A big one fell recently and triggered a small wind slab on the slope below.
• Winds gusted at moderate speeds all day, but we saw minimal blowing snow thanks to the crusts on windward slopes.
• Further down northerly slopes, where the terrian is more sheltered, we still found that strong winds from the past few days had affected the surface, but no slabs. The snow was generally soft and good skiing.
• The upper snowpack on sheltered northerlies has hardness interfaces, but no crusts. We found no obvious weak layers, buried or at the surface, and got no propagating test results.
• On north aspects we avoided the steepest, and unsupportd, wind loaded slopes where a hard wind slab could break above us.
• Skiing back down southerly slopes to our sleds we found the least crusty skiing on lower angled slopes with the shade of trees.
• At lower elevations on our sled ride out the surface snow was getting wet. We saw small rollerballs and a few small natural sluffs, one of which ran down to the road.