Winters Last Hurrah

15cm of dense storm snow over a 4cm thick crust on north facing slopes at treeline made for a return to fun skiing. Moderate southwest winds were building up cornices and creating 40cm thick wind drifts at ridgetops where we observed some limited cracking from our skis. The new snow seemed to be stuck on pretty well and we didnt trigger any loose dry or moist avalanches while skiing 35+ degree steep tree runs. By the end of the day a 3cm thick pencil density crust had formed on the surface of the storm snow with 4F to 1F snow below sitting on top of the old temperature crust.