Silver Tongued Devil

Day off tour to JF Stevens Canyon to look for dry-ish snow. We found:

• Wet snow, even on northerly aspects, to about 5000 feet. This goo was up to 10" deep in places. On our descent, we triggered several wet loose slides that quickly gained mass, though they intially ran about 3" deep (Avalanche details tab ). On bigger slopes with long, steep pitches, these could pose a serious hazard. 
• About 3" of fresh snow that was moist snow to nearly 6500 feet. Because of rain and warming, it's hard to tell how much snow has fallen in this area in recent days. Maybe 5-7".
• We found slopes between about 5000 and 5800 feet were littered with natural rollerballs. Guessing these occurred with rain overnight and this morning. 
• Above about 6500 feet, the snow was dry and prone to drifting by moderate southwesterly winds. West-facing slopes were alternately scoured to a recent crust or slathered with small, soft drifts up to a foot thick. We saw some short cracks in these drifts but were unable to release any slabs on slopes below 35*. 
• At upper elevation ridges, the winds were blowing snow off cornices most of the day. While there wasn't a lot of snow to transport, this drifting snow was forming soft slabs on the lee sides of ridges and below cornices. The one we tested directly below a ridge at 6700 feet did not crack.

We stuck to moderately angled, planar slopes where any drifts were patchy. We didn't venture into the most wind loaded terrain.