Andesite Peak

Snowfall and wind picked up again today, and heavy snow (2in/hr) and strong winds caused poor visibility during our tour. Overall, 20 to 30 inches of new snow has fallen in this area since the start of the storm. Variations in snowfall rates, temperatures, wind, etc, during the storm created heavy and light layers of storm snow that we could feel under our feet and with our poles. Even though the new snow remained mostly unconsolidated in sheltered terrain, we still saw several signs of unstable snow in both sheltered and wind-affected terrain, including:

• Test slope failures and small avalanches that propagated widely across slopes on various aspects and elevations (wind and storm slabs). We remotely triggered some of these from nearby lower-angle terrain.
• Fragile cornices that broke easily as we approached them. When the cornice pieces fell on the slope below, they triggered failures on those slopes. 
• Shooting cracks of various lengths that failed at different depths. Some of them failed on graupel above a crust at the base of the storm snow.
• Natural avalanches from the last 24 hours.
• Sluffs of dry loose snow on steep slopes in sheltered terrain.

Ski kicks triggered short (1-3 ft) shooting cracks that failed at the base of the recent snow on two steep test slopes in below treeline terrain on N-NE-E facing slopes. The new snow on these slopes remained mostly unconsolidated. We also triggered a small (D1) storm slab that failed between today's snow and yesterday's snow on a N-NE facing slope with a ski cut. We remotely triggered another storm slab (D1.5) on a W-facing slope from lower angle terrain above the slope. In more wind-loaded areas, ski kicks above NE-E facing test slopes and small pieces of cornices dropped on test slopes triggered small wind slab avalanches that failed in the storm snow. These propagated wider than usual across the terrain features.