Gale force winds and moderate to intense drifting snow pre storm in the Carson Pass area.

We did a late morning tour today on Elephant's Hump (Peak 9,002') just is the incoming storm was arriving. Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours gave way to rapid lowering and thickening of cloud cover from 11 to 11:30 am. Snowfall began in our area shortly there after. Winds were gale force out of the SW, with the stronger ridgetop gusts knocking us around a bit. Moderate to intense amounts of drifting snow were observed all morning in near treeline and above treeline areas.

We picked out a few accessible wind loaded near treeline test slopes in the area. Wind slabs near treeline were around 1 foot thick and difficult (stubborn) to trigger. Higher up in very wind exposed terrain, the wind slabs in lee areas were hard slabs. We triggered cracking in a few areas, but no test slope failures. We did not engage with any avalanche terrain larger than a test slope.