Lingering Wind Slabs, Warming Snow, and Morning Clouds on Mt. Judah

Widespread cloud cover this morning may have delayed today's warming, but the clouds did not stop wet snow from forming. By noon ski cuts on E and ESE facing slopes near the summit of Mt. Judah triggered roller balls, pinwheels, and some small sluffs comprised of yesterday's snow. I could also feel heavy wet snow on some of the more NE and N-facing slopes by 12:30. The wet snow remained shallow this morning. It was just yesterday's 1 to 2 inches of new snow that had gotten wet. The warming had not melted the old melt-freeze crust underneath yesterday's new snow by the time I left the area at 1 pm. The clouds did start to dissipate at that time allowing the March sun to hit the slopes in full force, so I expect more wet snow formed this afternoon.   

In addition to the wet snow, I also wanted to check on the wind slabs that formed yesterday. I found slabs of wind drifted snow on Wild Flower Ridge that measured about 10 inches deep near the ridge. They quickly got much less thick as I moved down from the ridge with the wind-loaded snow ceasing about 10 to 15 ft from the ridgeline (see photo). I kicked these wind slabs with my skis and ski cut some wind-loaded test slopes but did not trigger any cracking. I did get mixed results with snowpit tests on the wind slabs. One test performed near the ridge where the wind slab was thicker produced unstable results (ECTP 12). Another test a few feet below the ridge where the slab was thinner did not yield unstable results (ECTN 16).