Small stubborn wind slabs and gradual warming on Stevens Peak.

We toured up the E side of Stevens Peak today, looking for wind slabs and to gauge the snow surface warming.

Ascending the peak, snow surface conditions were wet at the hwy at 7,800', transitioned through gloppy around 8,000', eventually becoming dry above about 8,300'. Snow surface warming in this area was occurring gradually.

New wind slab formation was limited with small, stubborn, 1F+ hard wind slabs up to 4 inches thick sitting on top of old hard wind slabs in the traditional E to NE aspect lee areas. It appeared that most windward aspects were fairly well scoured, running out of old snow on the ground available for continued drifting and wind slab formation.