Castle Peak Obs Tour

Today we toured in the Castle Peak/Andesite region. After a morning of rescue practice in the Castle meadow, we headed up Andesite's SE ridge. Early in our approach, on east aspects, pole probing remained consistent with the week's obs and forecast; it remains obvious that a persistent weak layer exists in our snowpack. That being said, we did not experience any whumpfs or cracking on these aspects. As we gained the ridge with a more southernly exposure, surface conditions increased in variability, with many frozen/re-frozen tracks. Andesite peak did not display signs of wind affect on the southern side, and winds were calm as we transitioned just south of the peak at around 14:45. Ski quality was highly variable, but good turns were still found!