Observation from Powderhouse

Winds seemed to pick up during my mid day tour on Luther Pass. Less than an inch of new snow had fallen at my home in Meyers over the previous 12 hours, but plenty of soft snow was available for wind transport near the 8300 foot ridgeline. I was impressed at how bare the west facing slopes were due to consistent wind scouring over the recent storms. Any thoughts of continuing further up the ridge were abandoned after the first major gust hit. Ascending options were also relatively limited since the terrain away from the wind loaded slopes that I wished to avoid lacked adequate snow cover for skinning. Even within the trees the snow near ridgeline terrain was being affected by the wind. Lower on the treed slope I couldn't detect any storm snow weaknesses. 

Photo 1: Textured snow surface from snow falling off trees

Photo 2: Evidence of snow settlement

Photo 3: Fully scoured windward ridge aspect

Photo 4: Cracking on a wind loaded test slope. The ridge proper was being scoured down to rocks or old hard snow.

Photo 5: Nearly filled in skin track. This was being filled in rapidly by blowing snow.