Soft snow on Luther Pass

Scratchy conditions upon leaving Hwy 89 improved quickly as I gained elevation with over a foot of soft new snow present near the summit of Powderhouse today. I skinned through a few steep below treeline zones and saw no evidence of storm slab instability even after undercutting test slopes with the skin track and then jumping on top of it. Along the summit ridge I poked over to the south facing side and found 2-4 inches of soft storrm snow over rocks and bushes. While wind had clearly moved a signficant amount of snow over to the leeward slopess, I observed little evidence of wind slab with only the very steepest test slopes producing small slab but only under my skis. Skiing was quite good down to about 8000 feet where fresh snow became thinner and I found the old crust often. 

Photo 1: Testing a steep slope below tree line. No results even after undercutting test slope.

Photo 2: Pretty opening near the edge of treelike with very little evidence of wind.

Photo 3: While new snow was only a few inches deep near the road, on the loaded side of the summit ridge there was over a foot of soft new snow. 

Photo 4: No evidence of slab behavior on this above tree line slope.

Photo 5: Limited reactivity on very steep test slopes along the ridge and no propagation observed beyond my ski.