Avalanche Activity on Mt. Rose

Toured around Tamarack Peak, Prolitariate Bowl and the East Ridge.  Around 6'' of new snow on top of a rain layer formed Sunday, 12/19, afternoon.  The rain layer went up to 9200' above that it was a denser layer of wet heavy snow.  Below this layer was less dense snow that fell previous to Sundays warm up.  This rain layer was mostly ski supportable with ski pen of 4-6'' occasionally collapsing with a skiers weight.  Large cracking occuring around skis right from the trailhead and as I got into more wind loaded terrain shooting cracks were common.  Poking a ski pole into the upper snowpack could easily reveal this rain layer/heavy layer with the less dense snow below it.  Getting this upper slab to propagate and run was pretty easy with ski kicks and/or cornice drops, all failures were occuring withing the storm snow below the density change(rain layer or dense layer).  

There is now well over 300cm of snow in wind loaded terrain.  All failures were in the upper most recent storm snow and I could not find/ID any surface hoar layer.  I did 3 ECT's in various locations, all were consistent showing easy propagation results below the density change which matched up well with my informal observations.

I didn't see any natural avalanche activity but visibility was limited with the weather so couldn't see much more than what I was on. 

Photo #1: Large cracking around skis with occasional collapsing on the density change in the snowpack.

Photo #2:  Small slab kicked off on convex rollover failing on storm snow weakness density change.  North aspect, 35 degrees, 9200'.  Crown line 6''-10''.

Photo #3:  Kicked off a cornice that caused slab failure on slope.  38 degree, north aspect, windloaded 9400'.  Crown line 8''-1.5'.

Photo #4:  Ski kick propagated small slab on north aspect, 36 degree slope around 9600'.  Crown line 6''-1.5'.