Dust on Crust and Small Wind Slabs on Andesite Peak

4 to 8 inches of cold soft snow had accumulated on top of a firm frozen crust in the Castle Peak / Andesite Ridge area. Hand pits, ski pole probing, and other observations showed this new snow to be right side up and that it had bonded well to the frozen crusts below it. In sheltered below treeline areas no signs of storm slab problems existed.

Once the sun hit the snow this morning it started to change and E aspects held wet heavy surface snow by 10 am. Ski cuts and kicks on steep E facing slopes caused this layer of wet surface snow to sluff and started to release small roller balls. These kind of sluffs became easier to trigger as the slopes experienced more sun-exposure between 10 am and 11:30 am.

In more exposed near treeline areas, small wind slabs had formed on wind-loaded E and NE aspects. Ski cuts triggered shooting cracks and small wind slab failures on wind-loaded test slopes. The deepest of these small wind slabs only measured about 1 ft in depth. at slightly higher elevations with even more exposure the NW winds had already scoured the new snow away from NW facing wind-loaded test slopes leaving firm icy crusts behind.

After a mostly clear and very sunny morning, cloud cover started to increase around midday and some very light snow showers occurred.