Toured outside of the boundaries of WMR on a surprisingly wintery day. Despite the aggressive north wind, we found minimal wind loading in the sheltered/treed terrain, with cracking noted only in wind deposits around trees on the ridge line.
ECTN 18 approx 35cm down in a north facing pit just below ridge line. A significant crust (3/21) can be seen in the picture from the pit, but no failure noted above or below this stout crust.
We triggered lots of sluff in the top few inches of new snow at the the lower elevations on north-facing terrain, and on the west-aspect we skied at the end of the day, where the snow was definitely warming. The most notable find was a layer of graupel throughout most of the area near the top of the snowpack, with a bit of new storm snow from this morning on top. Minimal new snow fell through the day.
