New Snow and Clearing Skies on Tamarack

I toured on the East Ridge of Tamarack to look at wind-loaded test slopes and to see how the Jan 4 layers had reacted to the new snow loading from last night and this morning. In this area, the snow stopped during the morning and the skies cleared up. Sunny cool weather predominated during the afternoon. This area got about 1.25cm (.5 inches) of precipitation in the form of about 5 cm (2 inches) of dense new snow out of this storm. This dense snow rested on top of another thin layer of dense snow. Overall about 10 cm (4 inches) of dense ski supportable snow rested on top of softer older snow. 

I dug a test pit in an area near my pit from before this storm to see if I would get different results on the Jan 4 layer. All of my snowpit tests indicated that this layer continued to gain strength despite the new load. My results were CTN, ECTX, PST 96/100 END on the Jan 4 layer about 40 cm (16 inches) below the surface. I did get an ECTN 11 and a CT 10 RP on the density change about 10 cm (4 inches) below the surface. 

While skinning I found a few small test slope in open areas. When I kicked these slopes they did crack but the wind slabs were mostly only 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) thick. One slope had a 15 cm (6 inch) thick wind slab. Higher up in more exposed terrain, I could see large cornices hanging over wind-loaded slopes, but I did not see any signs of recent wind slab avalanches.