Crater Crest

We toured up the East face of Crater crest to see how much more snow was avalible for transport and get views of above treeline terrain in Cattle Creek and Sawtooth zones. From the parking lot, we could see wind loading on NE ridges on  NTL and ATL terrain. We chose to go up the West flank of the crater crest so we could get views of the  Sawtooths and avoid any overhead hazard in the middle of the crater crest's steep North face. Skiing was slow, the first 1500 ft were in the below treeline terrain, where cold snow was present and the wind hadn't affected this snow. However, we did get a few rollerballs to tumble down as we skied an open East face. Our skin track was well over 24 inches deep at times. As we reached the ridge top and entered near treeline terrain wind wind-affected snow became noticeable and small pockets of wind slabs were present. SW winds were actively loading the NE-facing ridge. Looking into Cattle Creek from the ridge we could see wind-textured snow in the alpine and blowing snow below the tree line as well as a few natural point releases on Mt Walt. Although new snowfall hasn't occurred in a few days the wind continued to load exposed terrain on Leeward aspects. When we returned the cars wind speeds had increased and cloud cover obstructed the higher peaks in the area.

Wind slabs cracking under the skis on our tour up. No signs of wind affected snow until we reached NTL terrain on the exposed ridgeline.