General Observations

Went for a hike before the forecasted winter storm rolled in on Sunday up Fossil Creek to the south of Rainbow Ridge. At road level, only about 2 inches of snow and evidence of snow being blown around by the gap winds that whipped the area Friday and Saturday (Oct 23-24). Higher up (~4500ft) we found 4 inches of snow with lots of pockets of windslab that were sending out shooting cracks and whumping. Some small natural windslab avalanches were observed on higher wind loaded slopes.