In sheltered areas the snowpack is soft and there is no slab. In wind-drifted areas above treeline the wind-drifted slab is up to three feet thick. I triggered a small avalanche on a small test slope. The avalanche broke near the ground in places. This shows that on wind-loaded northerly-facings slopes you can trigger avalanches where a slab sits over weak faceted layer.

Humbug Gulch

I triggered a very small avalanche on a small test slope by stomping my ski onto the hard snow. Cracks shot out from my ski and remotely triggered a small 20 ft vertical slope.

Cracking and collapsing only related to the triggered avalanche. The wind-drifted slab is mostly directly below ridgetop though as I climbed higher above treeline, drifted snow filled in terrain features more continuously. The snowpack structure is fairly simple. In shady, sheltered areas the snowpack is mostly faceted. On drifted slopes, the recent slab of drifted snow sits on a layer of small facets that formed near the surface before the start of our recent winds. There is a thinner layer of older-drifted snow below the thin layer of facets and then 20 cm of basal facets near the ground.

Windy at ridgetop but no snow moving at all. Cool but not cold.