Wind, new snow, wind slabs

We rode into all three Yellow Mule drainages and the head of Muddy Creek. It was snowing hard and wind was blowing strong this morning. In the afternoon, clouds lifted and snow let up. Skies remained mostly cloudy, but with high clouds there was decent visibility at the end of the day. There were 10-12" of new snow since last weekend, 2-4" low density fell this morning.

There was a small wind slab avalanche in McAtee (Photo) and a small wind slab in Beaver Creek. 

We dug four snowpits, northerly aspects (one in each Yellow Mule), and one on a southeast aspect on the west side of the Second Yellow Mule. We did not find any unstable test scores or concerning layers. ECTNs within the new snow and ECTXs in some cases. In the southeast facing pit there was one .5" thick crust below this week's snow and a crust 2" thick below last weekend's snow (photo). Most pits had a dirt layer from last Sun/Mon strong-extreme winds, 10-12" deep. Total snow depth was 6-7 feet.