Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Skied one of the N facing treed chutes between the Fern and Yost Creek drainages, from about 8900' down to 7400'. There was evidence of wind loading right at the ridge crest, and on an open NE slope at 8700', I did get some cracking around my skis on kick turns, and breaking of wind slabs about 6" deep. These were quite isolated however, and did not propagate very widely. Winds were moderate to strong at the ridge, and there was significant snow transport occurring, which was definitely intense up high. We skied at about 11:00, and the higher elevation peaks were already obscured by clouds, with light snow falling. Once we were about 100' below the ridge, the character of the snow changed entirely, and there was no wind affect or loading present at all. Instead, we found about 12-15" of unconsolidated storm snow from two nights ago and yesterday morning, which skied fantastic. There was some long-running loose dry activity, but this only entrained the top 2-4" of the snow, which seems to have been lower density snow from yesterday morning. Below about 7800', a thin melt-freeze crust existed on our ascent, and this had softened to very dense, manky snow by the time of our descent. We had put in a skin track yesterday morning, and this was still present, with maybe a trace to 1" of snow on top of it.