Shallow instabilities in the Swan

Observed shallow instabilities on Thursday's tour in the Swan Range.

• 2" to 8" of recent snow over a hard, supportive crust.  
• At upper elevations, the snow was previously drifted by strong easterly winds near exposed terrain.  Some areas were scoured down to the crust, some features were drifted into thicker deposits.  In crossloaded terrain features, we noted cracking about 6" to 12" thick.  We avoided drifts in consequential terrain. 
• By 3 p.m. the recent snow was sluffing on hotter aspects.  We saw a handful of natural D1 loose wet slides and triggered a couple ourselves.  
• Notable avalanche activity from last week was a handful of wet slabs and an abundance of large loose wet slides, up to D2.5 in size, mostly on the southern half of the compass.