Red Lake Peak

Wind, sun, and warm weather have shaped snow surfaces around Red Lake Peak into a mix of wind-affected features, sun crusts, melt-freeze snow, and even some nascent mini penitentes. A few shady areas also still held some cold, soft snow.

We focused on sun-exposed southerly aspects. On true south aspects, snow coverage is thin with many areas of exposed rocks and dirt. The snow that did exist on these slopes was soft and wet, but still supportable for travel. As one moved onto SE or SW aspects, the surfaces became more textured with those mini-penetentes, and the melt-freeze conditions were less well developed. Skis cut on a steep SE aspect triggered a few roller balls in this transitional snow. Aside from those roller balls, we did not observe other signs of unstable snow.