Whindy

Day off tour at low and mid elevations in the Middle Fork.

• Increasing clouds thwarted any real loose wet concerns. Crusts on southerlies stayed mostly frozen. Low elevation northerlies got damp and shed a few harmless rollerballs.
• Strong to extreme ridgetop winds continued transporting snow in the alpine. Winds were mixing down to mid elevations, turning the snow surface over but not loading slopes where we traveled.
• We spotted a recent D2 cornice fall that triggered a thin slab on its way down, on a high elevation leeward slope.
• In the few areas that we found surface hoar, it was toppled by winds or sun. Near surface facets were also getting worked and rippled by winds, even in normally sheltered terrain.
• We had hopes of skiing a steep, alpine slope, but with potential for fresh wind slabs and flat light making it hard to identify drifting patterns, we kept to more protected terrain with better visibility, and skied steep terrain with no instabilities.