Blowing Snow and Small Wind Slabs on Tamarack Peak

Driving over to Tamarack, it was raining up to at least 7500 ft this morning. The rain turned to snow above that elevation. When we got out of the trucks, the wind was blowing and there was about half an inch of snow on the bank of the pullout. As we skinned up to Tamarack it kept snowing and blowing but it seemed like accumulation was limited.

The blowing snow was starting to form small slabs of wind drifted snow near the ridgelines, so we found a small NE facing wind-loaded test slope at 9800 ft to check out. The small cornice at the top of the slope broke when Steve kicked it but it did not trigger anything on the slope below. Steve ski cut the small test slope with no results. I moved in and dug a quick pit. Wind loading from yesterday and today had formed a 4-6 inch wind slab on the slope. This wind slab rested on top of a thin layer of softer snow above a more dense previous scoured surface. This 4-6 in wind slab failed easily on the weaker snow below it (ECTP 3, ECTPV, ECTP7). After those tests, I went above the pit and kicked on the test slope again. The 4-6 inch deep wind slab slid where it had been undercut and filled in the pit. This wind slab only extended a few feet from the ridgeline. 

We continued to the top of Tamarack, where we saw more blowing snow. Again the new snowdrifts did not extend very far from the ridgelines nor were they very deep. We kept seeing blowing snow and small slabs of wind drifted throughout our tour. Some of these would crack when we kicked them with our skis. Fragile but small cornices existed along the Prolateriate ridgeline. Overall, the wind slabs that we saw remained small and shallow. We did remark numerous times that if we get snow tonight they will quickly get larger and could become more problematic. 

The SW winds remained strong while we were out. Cloud cover and snow came in bursts. Occasionally the sun would poke through the clouds. By the time we returned to the trucks it had gotten noticeably warmer and there were puddles of water in the parking area. Driving back down the snow showers turned to rain at around 8400 ft. Then we drove out of the clouds into sunny skies around the lake and in Truckee. The clouds could be seen along the Sierra Crest as well.