Gale force winds, down trees, and frozen snow surfaces on Andesite Ridge.

We toured into Castle Pass today and saw what was expected: Down trees and firm icy surfaces. Gale force NE winds were ongoing and we easily spied three large down trees along the Castle Rd. The snow surface was icy on all aspects with no chance for melt with the colder air temperatures and convective cooling from the wind. 

Our intention was to dig a snowpit to look at the Dec 11 layer on a west aspect. We were able to find a suitable spot near Castle Pass at 7,860' where we felt we were clear from the falling tree hazard. The snowpack at this location was strong overall with significant rounding of the Dec 11 layer. Snowpit tests gave no signs of current or future instability concerns on this layer.