VIRGINIA LAKES - RED LAKE TREES

Strong wind, blowing snow, and shooting cracks today. We toured above Red Lake in the East facing trees and topped out at 10,520 ft. Gale force wind from the South was swirling around and loading up the east-facing aspect we were on. Several shooting cracks and whumps were seen and heard. We kept our slope angle to the terrain below 30 degrees. Nearby on a north-facing aspect above Red Lake, we saw evidence of a natural slide that presumably went during the last 24 hrs. The wind slab problem was in our face and hard to avoid. The persistent slab problem is still difficult to navigate. This area overall is a patchwork of snow and the distribution of the basal facets were not uniform.