NE wind building touchy wind slabs on W aspect of Andesite Ridge.

We toured NW Castle Peak and E side Andesite today. The new snow from the previous 24 hrs had bonded decently to the crust at the old snow surface. We saw this in numerous hand pits along the SW ridge and in the NW trees of Castle Peak.

NE winds were stronger than forecast with ridgetop averages over 30 mph and gusts to 50 mph. This created periods of intense drifting and redistribution of new snow on the ground. Traveling along the ridgetop between Castle Pass and Andesite Peak we were looking for wind slabs and found "touchy" sensitivity to triggers in freshly wind loaded areas. Shooting cracks up to 30 ft long were easily triggered. These wind slabs were 4F hard and failing at the interface of drifted snow on top of the F hard new snow, not down on the crust below. Along this section of ridge we encountered only one test slope that was steep enough to avalanche.

Some areas at and above treeline were scoured back down to the old snow surface crust by noon. Wind slabs now exist in various locations on all aspects. Signs of unstable snow we present in near treeline and above treeline areas. No signs of instability were observed in wind protected areas below treeline.