New Precip, Some Loose Wet Snow, and Wind Slabs on Silver Peak

From the parking lot, we saw rain crusts and rain runnels on the snow surface (photo 1). These obvious surface signs of rain on snow gave way to a smoother surface with recent snow on top of a rain crust. The rain crust existed 2 to 8 inches below the snow surface up to at least 8000'. Warming temperatures today created some small wet surface snow instabilities. Ski cuts on steep slopes triggered loose wet roller balls and pinwheels. Most of these remained small (photo 2) but one did grow to 4 ft in diameter on a steep below treeline slope. We did not find evidence of deeper instabilities in sheltered terrain.

Once we got into more exposed terrain, we saw cornices overhanging wind-loaded slopes. We also saw debris and a crown from an avalanche that likely happened on Sunday (more details here). We dug a snowpit on a lower angle slope near this avalanche. We found a dense wind slab sitting on top of lighter snow. Snowpit tests still produce unstable results at this interface (video). The cornices above smaller test slopes proved to be stubborn and did not release with ski kicks. We avoided larger cornices and wind loaded slopes due to concerns about lingering wind slab instability. 

Snow showers of variable intensity occurred throughout the tour. Snowfall was wet and heavy.