Roadside and Summer Road

Winds steadily increased this afternoon, and began drifting snow around 3400'. Freshly formed drifts of snow produced shooting cracks extending 5-10' from my ski tips; these drifts were anywhere from 6-10" thick. Below about 3400', drifts were thinner and less stiff, while I experienced a few muffled collapses just south of the summer road; these could likely be attributed to the thick vegetation below the drifts. Looking up toward ridge tops, peaks, and alpine bowls, many slopes have been scoured to bare ground. Many of these slopes were N and NE facing; however, I saw many westerly and southerly slopes equally scoured to the ground. It is worth noting that while the entirety of some slopes where scoured top to bottom, many were not, showing bare ground only about one hundred feet below their highest point. Glassing from the road, it does seem like the southern tip of the range got the brunt of the wind effect; anywhere north of Independence Mine had some wind effect, although to a much lesser extent than the mountains around Gold Mint, the South side of Marmot Peak, and 4068, for example.  

Just off the road, I felt several small collapses, mostly caused by snow over the vegetation below. Where the wind had drifted the snow, I observed several large collapses, accompanied by cracks extending 5 to 10' in front of or below me.

Above about 3400', freshly formed wind slabs were 6-12" thick and produced cracking or collapsing confined to outcroppings, convex terrain features, and cross-loaded gullies. In hand pits, they were true wind slabs, failing within the new snow or on the interface with older snow, and not on the weak snow near the ground. This wasn't the case everywhere, especially near the valley bottom or shallow southerly slopes, where the wind slabs were thinner and resting over ~15 cm of faceted snow.