Gale Force Winds and Heavy Snow on Donner Ridge

Gale force SW winds along with heavy snow was occurring through the midday hours on Donner Ridge.   Widespread cracking around skis with shooting cracks in open and treed terrain.   The upper snowpack was wind affected and varied from wind board in the most wind exposed areas to dense storm snow.  Ski pen varied from 0 to 1.5' deep with 3' of total 3 day storm snow in this area at 7600'.  Several different layers were noted within the storm snow, the dense surface snow and a large density change approximately 2' down with less dense snow in between.   We skied low angle non avalanche terrain with limited visibility.