Observations from Third Creek

Did a tour up Third Creek today in the Mount Rose area to ride a run off of Relay Ridge. Conditions were as expected throughout the day with clear skies, cool temps and sustained moderate winds and strong gusts from the SW. Flagging and drifting snow was observed along most ridge lines, and recent wind texture and ripples were visible on most slopes, both in the visinity and farther away. What was not anticipated was the erratic nature of wind transport today, localized winds were behaving in unique ways creating a a plethora of wind drifts throughout the slope. We noticed lee loading, cross loading and sporadic swirling that left small to moderate sized pockets of potential windslabs throughout the slope we were looking to ski. A few small windloaded test slopes did produce signs on instability. We opted for a less wind exposed, lower angle run and had overall excellent ski quality. The group also decided to dig a little lower down where we were greated with a mainly uniform snowpack that was 150cm deep, and were able to ID the Dec 9 facets, which were rounding out and would clump when pressed into a snowball.