Castle Peak Observations

We went into the Castle Peak area to check on snow coverage and to continue monitoring the snowpack in this area.  The recent storm snow improved the travel conditions in this area, but travel remains very thin with early season conditions until reaching over 8000' on northerly aspects.  We traveled on skis today and kept them on more than we thought, but still had to walk some sections that did not have adequate snow coverage.  Recent NE winds have scoured off the new storm snow in exposed areas back down to the very firm rain crust making for difficult travel conditions.  There does remain some unconsolidated snow on SE-S-SW aspects that was starting to be transported today as the SW winds were increasing.  The snowpit we dug showed a mostly dense and firm snowpack with limited test results.