Wind Slabs and Loose Wet Activity on Ophir Peak

Partly sunny to partly cloudy skies for most of the day in the Mt. Rose area with warm overall temperatures.   Supportable crusts with a couple inches of recent snow existed in the mid morning hours.  Along Chickadee Ridge and Ophir Ridge, reactive wind slabs and cornices existed that would fail with a ski kick.  Multiple snowpack tests near the peak showed a wind slab around 12-14'' deep that had consistent ECTP results.   On North aspects at 8700', small loose wet activity began with some slab characteristics.  At 8500', surface snow was reduced to 2'' of snow on top of some rain/wet snow layers.  This produced widespread small roller ball activity with ski turns.  Below 8500', boot pen was knee deep with the recent storm snow on top of wet grains.  No refreeze of the snowpack occurred overnight in this area below this 8500' level with sticky and heavy snow.