Crystal Lakes

Went out with the intent of getting a handle on surfaces and the east winds as the storm ramped up. 

A breakable crust exists on slopes that see direct sunshine. In a few spots, it was sort of supportable, where it was thicker after melding into crusts below. There was faceting going on above the crust, along with surface hoar from last night.

On shaded aspects, cold dry snow exists. A lot of it is faceted from a few cold clear nights (recycled powder).  You could hear it jingle when making turns. Widespread surface hoar exists.

The winds were easily moving snow around. Although it was more pronounced at ridgecrest, we noted moving snow and biting cold wind well below the ridge. Some surface hoar was laid over by the wind, but a lot was still upright and intact.

I was able to get pockets of wind-drifted snow to fail easily on leeward test slopes near ridgeline. The crust was breakable in a lot of places and cracked easily. It sometimes failed as a cohesive unit and very "slab-like"