Natural activity, settlement in the Mammoth Crest area

I went for a tour in the red cone area today to get my eyes on exposed terrain and to see how the new snow was settling out.  I did not experience any wumphing or see any shooting cracks on my tour today, but I did see a handful of  (D1-D2) natural avalanches that appeared to run during the storm.   It was hard to see many details as paths were filled in by new snow.  

I dug a pit to the ground on a wind-loaded ENE slope to get a look at the facet grains near the ground.  The height of snow was 235 cm consisting of about 150 cm of 4F-1F wind packed snow sitting on top of loose faceted grains. 35 cm from the surface was a layer of grauple (2-4mm) that was reactive to compression tests. 

Temperatures were warm especially at lower elevations, and settlement cones were noted around trees on the way up to the ridge.  Surface conditions throughout my tour today consisted mostly of supportable wind board with about 5-6” of wind-affected snow on top.