We toured today in Lake McDonald area, in the hopes of scouting a new line.
Low clouds limited visibility for most of the day, no avalanches or instability were observed.
We expected to see signs of the recent winds but we were surprised to observe that most of the trees held snow, cornice development was minimal, and we did not find wind slabs in leeward terrain.
Borderline wet snow transitioned to moist snow around 5200’ which then became dry around 7200’.
At upper elevations, we observed hoar frost development on the trees (photo).
Frozen dollops of snow around rimed trees provided evidence of recent warming (photo).
Our greatest hazard of the day was walking in ski boots on an ice glazed trail (photo).
