None of the five red flags observed, when on a ~40° to 40°+ slope, very minor, low energy sluffing was observed. Never ran far or carried much snow.
Observation: Hatcher Pass
Location: Lonesome Mine
Started at Gold Mint TH and toured down the trail towards Lonesome Mine. Pretty socked in all day, around 12pm skies cleared over Idaho for ~20mins but then quickly clouds came in and the snow started falling. Saw minor wind effect at higher elevations from previous wind events, nothing seemed to be very recent. No new avalanches seen, though light was very flat and it was often obscured so it was hard to really try and find anything throughout the day.
Observer Comments
Weather
At car;
Time: 10:25am
Elevation: 1804'
Wind: Calm-Light
Sky: OVC+
Temp: 27°F
Precip: NO
At pit location;
Time: 12:34pm
Elevation: 2900'
Wind: Calm
Sky: X - Obscured
Temp: 30°F
Precip: S-1 increasing to S1+ later(2pm)
Snow surface
Around the creek bed there was an interesting, thin, weak crust on the surface yet disappeared quickly with elevation. Otherwise, 1.5'-2' of not the driest powder sitting on top of the big old wind slab.
Snowpack
Dug pit at 2900' on a NW aspect on a 32° incline, pit profile and results below
TL;DR
CT7 Q2RP 15cm down
ECTN 8 Q2RP 15cm down
Collapse at ground when going overdrive after formal test on rounding, wet facets at base
Lonesome Mine-18-Feb
Pit side wall