Quick report
On Friday the 13th I was ski touring in the Northern Wallowas. It was cloudy and the peaks were obscured. The temperature was around 24 degrees. At the start of my tour (6000’), winds were light to moderate out of the south. As I ascended, the south wind steadily increased in velocity. At 7600’ I observed moderate to strong south winds. The strong winds were rapidly stripping snow from the windward facing side of the ridge and redepositing this snow on leeward, north and northeast facing slopes. Thin and reactive windslabs were starting to develop on these leeward facing by early afternoon. I did not observe snow falling from the sky while I was out skiing. I dug a snowpit at 7600’ on a north northeast facing slope. The snow depth at this location was 3’ . I observed a generally well consolidated, “right side up” snowpack. My Extended Column Test (ECT) and Compression Test (CT) failed (moderate force) on a thin weak layer about 10” below the snow surface where the density changes from soft surface snow to well consolidated, “one finger hardness” snow. No propagation was observed with the ECT test. The shear quality of the CT was “progressive compression “ of the softer upper 10” of snow that resides in the upper snowpack. The snow on the ground was moist and consolidated. The big takeaway from the time I spent in my snowpit was just how much snow was being moved around by the wind. While I was collecting snowpack data, I was getting pelted by blowing snow and was constantly having to clean wind deposited snow off my tools and out of my glasses. That said, as of noon on Friday the 13th, snowpack structure at this elevation and aspect is decent. However, I would be very concerned about unstable new windslab formation on leeward facing terrain with this new round of new snow accompanied by wind.