Claggy, with no sign of Sparklefluff

A quick morning tour north of WMR to check for surface hoar and wind effects. Struck out on the first; found some of the 2nd.

• Plenty of signs that winds have been drifting snow above about 6500 feet: narrow drifts between trees, tree bomb craters well away from trees, fragile cornices, one windward slope scoured almost to ground.
• Limited evidence that winds actually forming slabs: wind-packed snow on surface of windward slopes with < ski-length cracks with turns. Surface snow on leeward slopes not denser than snow below. Only result with dropped cornice was small, harmless slab on slope below.
• With one exception, snow profile on northerly slope at 6650 feet looked very similar to other recent profiles. 100 cm of progressively harder snow above 12/3 MFcr (see profile diagram), with few apparent failure planes.
• Mixed results on large column tests on rounding facets just above 12/3 crust (ECTP22; ECTX; DT21 SP). The propagating test was the only one I've seen so far this season on this layer.
• Turns on wind-exposed slopes of about 30* produced short (< ski-length cracks) but no other signs of instability. We were unable to test steeper slopes with ski cuts.

Visibility was sub-poor. We were off the hill before cold front blew through and winds picked up.