Winter House Gorge

Went for a look in Winter House Gorge and found a mixed bag of conditions. Windward (west facing) slopes are either scoured to ground or a mix of sastrugi and ice. Leeward (east facing) slopes are looking good coverage-wise but rapid loading due to high winds kept us away from them. We did notice debris from cornice failures but they didn’t appear to set off any slabs on the slopes below. We didn’t get a detailed look at the snowpack but there seems to be a temperature/ sun crust from last week that is a potential sliding interface. I suspect that open, lee slopes are rather touchy and the new snow coming in today (Wednesday) will make things worse before they get better.

Mostly sunny in the region except for large plumes of blowing snow from upper elevations resulting in limited visibility in the Gorge itself. Rapid loading of lee slopes from high winds