I spent the day in the Valhallas today and travelled from 1400m to 2500m on ESE to N aspects. There was ~ 40cm of facets topped with up to 20mm surface hoar at 1400m. HS was variable dependent on exposure to wind and ranged from 40—120cm. Below 2100m there was widespread surface hoar to 20mm in sheltered areas. Ski quality was quite good in sheltered areas at treeline to 1650m.

In the alpine, there was widespread wind effect which ranged from wind rippled facets to hard slab and sastrugi. Bootpacking at ridgetop was punchy and was coupled with a 5mm ice form crust at the bottom of the snowpack; which made it particularly unsavoury—crampons would have been helpful.

The entire snowpack is faceted and is starting to loose structure, but for the most part it still carried skier traffic well. Tree wells and alders were quite faceted.

By noon on ESE aspects the top 10cm were moist.

There were no signs of recent avalanche activity.

It’s going to be interesting once it starts snowing again, as surface roughness in most start zones and avalanche terrain has been surpassed by the height of snow.