Grooving up slowly

Today we went into Glacier National Park to get a feel for recently formed wind slabs and try to get a feel for how deeply buried weak layers were trending.

• We drove through the rain until Essex where it turned into a lovely wintery mix. This wintery mix persisted up to about 4500 feet. On the skin in, we found roughly 8 inches of moist to wet surface snow. The two inches of new snow that fell overnight rollerballed easily in steep terrain. 
• At middle elevations, we found roughly 16 inches of snow on top of the 12/22 crust. This 16 inches of snow broke easily in hand pits with clean shears.
• Areas exposed to the wind had two generations of wind slabs that totaled 1 to 2 feet deep. The deeper of the two was much harder and roughly 10 inches thick. 
• We received mixed feedback in various tests. Snowpit tests revealed unstable results and test slopes proved wind slabs to be more stubborn. 

The decision was easy to stick to wind sheltered terrain. This held safer conditions and higher quality riding.