Observations from The Playground

We toured from the Bracket Creek trailhead to The Playground.  

It snowed all day, predominantly S-1 with a few notable pulses of S-2.  

Winds were super elevation-dependent, with moderate (gusts to strong) upslope winds (E-NE) up until about 6500', moderate upslope winds from approx. 6500'-7300', and light and at times variable south-westerlies up until our high point at 8200'.  We saw very little wind effect above 7300' and we did not travel on any wind-loaded steep slopes during our tour. 

By 5:30 PM, there was 14-16" of new snow at 7000' and 22-24" at 8000'. Below the new snow was a stout and supportable melt-freeze crust. 

At the beginning of the day, we found the storm snow to be relatively low-density and unconsolidated, except for a 1-2" super soft slab capping the new snow in most locations we traveled. That thin soft slab got capped with another 3-5" of low-density snow that fell by the end of the day.

Though we could get small columns in hand pits to slide on the crust below, they lacked cohesion and broke apart when moved. We experienced only minor cracking on the ascent. The surface snow sluffed easily during our descents, but did not entrain much volume. In the wind-sheltered zones through which we traveled, neither test slopes, uptrack tests, nor ski descents produced any obvious signs of instability.