Storm Slab on Silver Peak

We went to Silver Peak to make observations and check out the new storm snow.  It was a warm and sunny day with well above freezing temperatures with little wind below ridgelines in the morning.  8 to 10'' of high density storm snow existed.  Tree drippings and warm surface snow glopped up skins on the approach and provided slow and sticky snow conditions on the lower elevations and on the road out.  We had some loose dry sluffing on a steep northerly slope below 7500'.  As we moved up to higher elevation on the E ridge previous wind scouring and wind loading were observed.  We dug a snowpit at 8000' and had limited snowpack test results.  As we skied down northerly terrain we found a small but steep test slope with a convex roll over that we decided to ski cut.  This test slope failed with a 1' storm slab avalanche.  The storm slab failed at the new snow/old snow interface on a mix of stellars and graupel.  Other signs of instabilities were fairly limited throughout the day.  W winds increased in the afternoon with blowing snow visible over the peak and ridges.