Fresh reactive wind slabs

We rode from Battle Ridge and skied up the east face of The Throne to look at the stability of the recent new snow.

There was 6" of low density snow from yesterday. Winds were stronger than expected, from the north at the top of the Throne, and increased through the morning.

We found fresh drifts that were reactive, cracking easily and 5-10' wide out from our skis, on south and east facing slopes around 8000-8300'.

The new snow was low density and sluffed easily on steep shady northerlies. On steep slopes facing the sun (south and east, and probably west) the new snow sat on a crust and became moist as the sun warmed it up and started to slide under skis. We saw a couple very small natural loose snow slides below rock outcrops on south facing slopes. Air temperatures were well below freezing, especially with wind chill, but the sun quickly warmed the recent new snow.

It is spring, in addition to assessing for unstable drifts of snow, plan for wet snow avalanche hazards to increase in likelihood throughout the day when the sun is out and temperatures are near or above freezing.