Quick report
Toured for a few hours this morning in the Mammoth Lakes Basin and up to the Mammoth Crest between ~8600' and ~10800' moving steadily from below treeline terrain to the alpine zone. We did see from a distance, and observed first hand some blowing snow, but it was mostly isolated and did not appear to be creating fresh wind deposits, more just swirling around. All signs pointed toward SW winds at ridgetop, but apparent wind was more variable in direction, driven by the terrain. There is a lot of wind pressed snow out there that just did not relent to the wind, currently resisting redistribution. Lots of smooth panels of recent wind deposits but these were firm and unreactive on skis. Plenty of wind erosion and damaged surfaces up there too. We probed an average of 150cm of total snow height in the alpine which felt right-side up below a shallow wind slab. A quick compression test on a NE aspect at ~10500' revealed a 20cm 4F to 4F+ hard wind slab failing ~20cm down at a slight hardness change (CT18RP). We stuck to primarily N and NE aspects near and above treeline. We did not observe and signs of recent avalanche activity and saw no signs of instability throughout the tour. Temps were warm with increasing clouds before noon. Winds were steady out of the SW and moderate to strong. Our egress was challenged by sticky snow below treeline.