March 7, 2009, Cascade East Slopes

Quick report on east slope area conditions.  Surprised to find that Thurs through Saturday's storms on the crest did not reach the eastern edge of the Cascades.
However Tues and Wed dumped 8 to 10 inches of heavy, high density, cohesive snow to the east.  I think the heavy new snow caused an avalanche cycle on north aspects as my picture shows.  It appears to have slid on a faceted layer between (pencil) crusts.  NWAC noted this in an observation by a USFS snow groomer.
By the time we skied on Sat. the new snow bonded to the uppermost crust and had dried out from cold nights prior.  On several compression tests it took shoulder taps to get it to move on the weak interface.  I jumped on the crown in the pic and could not get it to move (nature's rutschblock!).  The new snow was very dense, compressed, dry, and packed at times by wind.  East aspects had some loading and north/NE had crossloading.  Thus the skiing was good but a bit variable and not great like in the trees along the Cascade Crest.
I'd stay on safer slopes along the crest for the next couple of days for the best snow.