Incline Lake Peak

If it was not enough to look at the wind speeds on the remote sensors, we could see plumes of snow blowing over the ridges on Relay Peak, Rose Knob, and Incline Lake Peak as we drove to the trailhead. As we started up Incline Lake Peak, several more signs of blowing snow became obvious. Wind-created snow textures covered the lake bed. Open areas below treeline also had ripples, small drifts, and wind-packed surface snow. More sheltered areas held mostly soft snow with only minor wind effects. 

The winds increased once we got into more exposed near and above treeline terrain, and we encountered intense blowing snow. Sometimes, the wind gusts got strong enough to push us around. We did not stay in these windy areas long. During our time in this terrain, we triggered several shooting cracks in areas with newly wind-drifted snow. These newly formed wind slabs measured 18 inches deep on some test slopes. 

The strong winds scoured some areas near the ridge back to the old rain crusts. They left sastrugi and variable, uneven surfaces in most exposed areas. 

It was easy to trigger long shooting cracks and small collapses on newly wind-loaded S-SW-W aspects in near and above treeline terrain.