I dipped into the lift-accessed backcountry adjacent to the Telluride Ski Resort to check out the recent storm's impacts. Very little in the way of natural activity in view from the resort. Monday night brought around 4 inches to this area and as of 2pm on Tuesday, the winds had only began to transport it along ridgelines and peaks, with less wind-affect in the lower terrain. In pits, I found 20 to 34 inches of settled snow since the Valentine's Day storm. Below treeline, where the old snow surfaces were the weakest, I got propagation along this layer in an extended column test at 20 taps. Above treeline, where the new snow has settled into a four-finger-hard slab and sits atop old firm wind slabs in the midpack, this layer was stubborn to react. But, unfortunately, the snowpack structure in upper Bear Creek is still pretty bad, with thick layers of basal depth hoar lurking underneath wind slabs in the midpack (of varying thickness and stiffness), sandwiched between facets, now sitting under the new slab.

Backcountry accessed via Telluride Ski Resort

I dug below treeline on a west-facing slope near the Bald Mtn saddle at 11,700' and found 20 inches of settled snow sitting above a mostly faceted snowpack. Total height of snow here was 125cms. Tests failed at the 2/14 layer. Dug again in Delta Bowl on an east-facing slope at 12,500', a little ways down from the top of the bowl to assess a previously wind-drifted area. This is where I found 34 inches of recent snow and the aforementioned midpack wind slabs over depth hoar. The new snow here has settled and stiffened into a cohesive slab but is well-adhered to the old surface, a one-finger-hard wind slab. Tests here resulted in broken failures within the bottom of the storm snow.

Warm and sunny at low elevations throughout the day, but colder, cloudy, and breezy up high. A low cloud ceiling kept things cool until the afternoon but then broke apart later in the day, ending with sunny skies.