Partly to mostly cloudy skies in the WRV in the morning, with cloud cover gradually decreasing. I drove north around noon, the Smokys, Boulder, and Sawtooths were all partially obscured by clouds. It looked like the mountains were getting a good bit of sun through the low, scrappy cloud deck that was hanging around 10-11k. Steady winds blowing at moderate speeds at upper an exposed middle elevations on Copper, lots of the easy pickings for transport had already been moved by the winds.
I observed a handful of small, recent avalanches in the Sawtooths. Most of these were loose snow avalanches that likely were triggered by the sun this morning. The debris had a dry character. I observed a single small wind slab in the Sawtooths, near McDonald Peak (see photo). I also intentionally triggered a small (D1) wind slab at the top of the N/NE face of Copper. This failed within the new snow, 30-40cm down and broke 10-15m wide. The slab thickness tapered quicky downslope. The avalanche stalled out less than 50m downslope from the ridge..
Wind had moved lots of snow in upper elevation terrain and in exposed middle elevation terrain as well. I encountered fresh wind slabs up to 50-60cm thick along upper elevation ridgelines. Most slabs were unreactive, but I was able to produce some cracking in drifts and slabs right along ridgelines. Cracking seemed to be taking place within the new snow, maybe on some delicate PP or a crystal change