Middle Fork Wind Slabs

Quick day off tour in the Middle Fork.

• 4 finger hard wind slabs were reactive on leeward test slopes at middle elevations. The slabs were 4 to 12 inches thick and broke on fist hard snow from the past few days.
• We didn't go high enough to see surface hoar under the 12/31 crust, but we did find the crust with soft facets underneath. Our hand shears failed easily on those facets under the very thin crust. Some of the deeper slabs we intentionally triggerd failed on these facets as well. Those slabs broke wider than slabs failing in the old snow. The bed surface was old, hard, wind deposited snow.
• Light to moderate snowfall and moderate to strong winds were occasionally interupted by moments of calm and peeks at blue sky.
• There was continuous, moderate snow transport in exposed areas above about 5,000'.
• We turned around at 5,800' and skied a very low angled ridge. The skiing was poor, wind-affected snow and we got frequent shooting cracks and small wind slabs breaking from our skis even on slopes as low as 25 degrees. The skiing was better as we dropped off the ridge into sheltered terrain. That is until the snow turned into the wet, crusty, low tide conditions common at lower elevations so far this season.