Twin Lakes - Horse Creek

We were on the lookout for wind slabs yesterday in the Horse Creek area. What we found was scoured and slick snow surfaces. Isolated and sheltered locations held snow that had limited boot penetration. Overall, the terrain had been hammered by the wind. We found hard windboard snow in NTL and ATL terrain on northerly aspects. As shown in the photos, a slick surface crust was also present on the valley floor. Leaving Twin Lakes Campground, we kept the boards on our backs till we got to the top of the first bench. 

We found variable surfaces today. The terrain around the valley floor had a slick surface crust.  Near treeline terrain in the shade had a pencil-to-knife hard windboard surface. Crampons were essential today.