Before the Storm

We went to the Sawn Range to look for today's avalanche problem, and moreover, for conditions before the incoming storm.

• We triggered one little wind slab on a northwest facing test slope around 6400 feet. Every other drift we encountered was stubborn to our stomping and stability tests..
• In open terrain at middle and upper elevations, new snow will fall on low density fluff and soft drifted snow atop old hard wind slabs.
  • We were surprised how far downslope we felt hard, wind affected snow under the surface on all aspects. 
• In sheltered terrain below about 6000 feet, and especially on scoured southerly slopes, new snow will fall on a thinner, weaker snowpack.
  • We found a very thin sun crust surrounded by faceting grains under the 3 inches of snow that fell last night.
  • There's another layer of small facets about 1.5 feet below the surface.
  • We got easy compression test results in these layers, but no propagation.
• We looked for surface hoar everywhere but never found any.