Observation: Portage / Placer

9 inches new snow at the head of the Skookum from the Thursday morning’s storm. Widespread point releases on the hard bed surface had already occurred. Of note, skiing steep terrain produced almost no sloughing. Didn’t notice any slab avalanches in the storm snow. Significant surface hoar formation. Rapidly developing instabilities as tonight’s storm moved in. By 7 PM natural sloughs were occurring due to the incoming weather that were big enough to hear from 1/4 mile away.