Observation: Ben Lomond

Ben Lomond viewed from the southeast. Arrows indicate wind loading, including somewhat atypical fetch zones. I imagine the Bailey's zone is pretty wind loaded at this point. On the approach this morning, the summit featured a veritable wave of consistent plume dumping into the Ben Lomond/Willard headwall.

Chilly Peak. The speed smear in the photo was active snow transport from wind (right to left across the photo). The red line indicates the approximate location of the edge of the cornice. We found limited cornicing and pretty small size for what we did see, though plenty of large snow walls where I anticipate cornices developing eventually. But at the moment, the ridge line is fairly cornice free.

Photo of the back (west) side of Mount Ogden from town. Lots of scouring visible up high, more so than is typical. (Snow free terrain down low is largely due to melt, not wind.)

Really wish I could check the box for "powder," but alas, I think that's all done until the next snowfall. Up high we found the full panoply of wind affected snow: scoured, crusted, packed, scalloped, styrofoam, sastrugi, a bit of cornice.

 

Down low we found a bit of decaying melt-freeze crust in spots. Otherwise, damp snow conditions in most of the area. We did also find a few places of surprisingly good dense loose faceted snow. Best guess is the widespread surface hoar of earlier this week collapsed with warm temps, but hadn't quite fully succumbed to dampness yet. Given the warmth and wind, I doubt the surface hoar sticks around for the next snowfall.