Sterling Archer approves of this message

Today we went to Sterling and snowmobiled at tree line. We saw evidence of natural wind slab activity on shady (N facing) slopes in the alpine. These size 2 avalanches appeared to have happened over the weekend after the storm cycle. We could see moderate NE winds transporting snow in the alpine, and previous wind affect (from W winds) extended down into the trees. In the trees at 1000m, boot penetration was up to 60cm. We found 50cm new snow overlying a layer of facets (sugary, weak grains). In snowpack tests, this layer failed during hard hits (ECT N, CT H RP) but did not propagate on an Extended Column Test (ECT). Below this we found several older melt-freeze crusts interspersed between more layers of facets all of which had 1 Finger, Pencil, or Knife hard density (quite good strength).