Filling in

Traveled NE of WMR to monitor winds, snowfall, and recent snowpack developments.

• Light-Moderate blowing snow at 6800 ft ridgecrest (the highest we could reach). Fragile cornices with 2+ foot drifts immediately below. These drifts didn't seem to extend far downslope. Several cornice breaks (probably triggered) had left small blocks of debris on slope below, but didn't seem to produce slides that propagated much beyond width of cornice chunks (see images).
• 4 inches of snow overnight and during the day on sheltered slopes. Dense (F+ to 4F) and skied fast. Sitting on <1 cm rime crust from 12/20. Maybe - maybe - some surface hoar scattered in there. No propagation in column tests, though failed easily.
• Large column test propaged with moderate force ~30 cm below surface (see image). 4F slab from 12/18 released on slightly softer snow below. This interface is worth testing on steep slopes, which we did. It did not produce cracking or react to ski cuts or skiing on 40* mid elevation slopes (NE and SW aspects) where we prodded it. 
• On very steep, NE-facing slopes, we were able to produce small sluffs in the new snow that would only be dangerous if they shoved you into a tree well.
• I did not find buried surface hoar from 12/21 in the spot where it's most likely to have formed (Beaver Pond), or anywhere else, likely because the rime from 12/20 prevented it from forming.

Apart from the interface ~30 cm down, we found no significant failure planes above the early December crusts.