Powder With a Slab On Top

We went to John Stevens Canyon to see if the continuing winds had ruined all the recent powder. 

• Bullseye! We saw 2 natural slab avalanches that had run this morning on a steep wind-loaded slope above 6,500 feet. The crowns are highlighted by thin black lines in the 1st photo. Look carefully and you can make out the debris below the crown of the slide on the right. More details in the avalanche tab.
• Westerly winds were continuously redistributing snow in almost every open area above 5,500 feet throughout the day. In the 2nd photo you can see snow still in the trees below 5,500' (denoted by the blue line), and you can see snow stripped from the trees on windward slopes, while leeward vegetation still had snow.
• Despite winds mixing down to middle elevations, slabs below about 6,500 feet were thin - up to about 4 inches thick - and stubborn. You can see in the 3rd photo that some of our test slopes at middle elevations yielded no results. In the 4th photo you can see the kind of cracking we got on other test slopes between 5,500 and 6,500 feet.
• We got repeated propagating test results in a snow pit on a northeast-facing (leeward) slope around 6,700' (photo 5). Luckily these did not fail on a persistent weak layer. Rather, they failed because the very soft, low density recent storm snow is now capped by a slightly stiffer wind slab at that location.
• We dug on a windward slope (last photo) and got no propagation.
• We noticed on our descent late in the afternoon that some favored, middle elevation, windward slopes had been stirpped to the ground. Others, however, still held an inch or two of soft snow for the wind to keep blowing around.
• Snow showers most of the day consisted of graupel, with an inch or two total throughout the day.

Despite all the wind ruining perfectly good powder in exposed terrain, we found knee deep powder on the sheltered slopes we decided to descend.