Observation: Cutler Ridge

New snow on Cutler Ridge seems to be getting pushed around by the wind. Lower elevations were calm, but once we reached Dead Tree Knob (8000') the wind we lost cover and the wind was blowing hard from the Northeast. First picture shows wind scouring on top of the Knob. Second photo shows some cornices falling off the Ben Lomond- Willard ridgeline. It appeared that two or three small cornices had broken, with one causing a small, very narrow slide which is somewhat hard to see in the photo. Slide was maybe 20ft wide with ~100ft run. A good amount of spindrift was blowing off the top of Ben Lomond and off the Cirque.

We did not see obvious signs of instability, but we also played it pretty safe.