Hidden Peak

While driving down Hwy 89, we could see cornices and blowing snow along the side of the road. The blowing snow had reburied previously plowed parts of the road in some places. 

When we reached Hidden Peak, we found 50+ inches of storm snow in the parking lot. By 8200 ft, the storm snow totals measured closer to 60 to 70 inches. In the sheltered areas, the storm snow mainly felt right side up, with lighter, colder snow near the surface and more dense snow below. Still, ski cuts on convex rollovers triggered shooting cracks in these sheltered areas, and we could feel various weaknesses in the storm snow. We tried to look into steeper terrain from a safe distance, but poor visibility prevented us from seeing that terrain.

We could see and feel wind-affected snow at all elevations in open areas. Gale force winds still buffeted the upper elevations of Hidden Peak. These winds and intense blowing snow created whiteout conditions and made it hard to see into the more open terrain near the top of Hidden Peak. We chose to stay in low-angle terrain and used small wind-loaded test slopes to see the status of the wind slabs. These small test slopes cracked when we ski-cut them. 

We saw widespread cracking that indicated conditions suitable for unstable and wind storm slabs.