Andesite Peak

Soft, cold snow existed on Andesite today. While it was not snowing hard during our tour, snowfall remained continuous, and 1- 2 inches of additional cold snow accumulated while we were out. The recent snow lacked cohesion in the sheltered areas below treeline, and ski kicks or cuts on small, steep test slopes only produced shallow sluffs of loose snow. 

When we moved into terrain higher on the ridge, we could see signs of wind scouring and active wind loading, including blowing snow and new cornices above leeward-facing slopes. The newly formed wind slabs broke easily in these wind-affected areas when we kicked them. On steep test slopes, they failed as small wind slab avalanches. On less steep slopes, we triggered long shooting cracks. These wind slabs failed on soft, light snow at yesterday's snow surface. The wind loading also quickly refilled our tracks on the upper part of Andesite. 

We triggered shooting cracks up to 30 ft long in open wind-loaded areas on the upper part of Andesite Peak. Ski kicks on the flanks of wind-loaded test slopes near produced wind slab failures 4 to 8 inches deep.