Calm Conditions on Castle Peak

Calm weather with mostly sunny skies and almost no wind up to 9000'.  Firm crusts exist in many wind exposed areas that have been previously scoured by SW winds.  Very little evidence of any substantial NE winds in this area from previous days with little to no wind texture on upper elevation NW-N-NE aspects.  As SW winds increase this evening as forecasted, there remains very little snow available for transport until new snowfall occurs.  4 to 6'' of recent storm snow exists in protected areas with up to 8'' of wind blown snow on NW-N-NE aspects in near and above treeline terrain.  Snow in these wind loaded areas remained soft and unconsolidated and did not show any signs of cohesion or slab instability.

Photo#1:  Built out cornices just below Castle Peak.  W-NW ridge is scoured to firm crusts with up to 8'' of wind blown snow on leeward side.

Photo#2:  Exposed SW-W aspects at 8200' on Andesite Peak are well scoured with little to no snow available for transport.