New snow and wind

We rode from the bottom of Sawtelle over into Yale Creek. There was 5-7" of snow from last night and 14" of settled snow (2.0" SWE) from over the past week. Wind had formed thick drifts over the past week and was forming fresh drifts today. We did not see cracking in fresh drifts that we rode through. However, with new snow and wind-loading currently growing slabs, we expect avalanches breaking in the new snow and drifts are likely on steep slopes. In one snowpit we had ECTP13 on a thin layer of facets below the 14" of snow from over the last week. This could contribute to avalanches breaking under the weight of new snow and drifts as the slabs get larger. We did not see anything remarkable break on the weak layers deeper in the snowpack, but we are not trusting deeper weak layers during the ongoing loading this weekend, and we expect deeper avalanches are possible to trigger or could happen naturally.

Snow fell lightly all day with some heavier pulses, skies were overcast, and wind was light with moderate gusts from the west. We did not see any avalanches, but did not see much terrain due to limited visibility.