Deep Snow on Hidden Peak

Deep storm snow existed at all elevations on Hidden Peak. The storm snow showed signs of consolidation including settlement cones around trees at all elevations. It was also more supportable. Hand pits and probing with our poles showed a right-side-up snowpack. Ski cuts on some small, steep, convex test slopes did not produce any signs of storm snow instability. As we ascended above 7800 ft, we started to encounter more wind-affected snow. We saw ripples in the snow surface in some near and below treeline areas. Once we got onto the upper mountain, the typically wind-loaded slopes near the summit came into view. These had small cornices above slabs of wind-drifted snow. Ski kicks and ski cuts on some small wind-loaded test slopes along the ridge did cause some small cornice failures but no signs of lingering wind slab instability on the slopes below. We dug into one of the wind-loaded test slopes and found right-side-up snow. Snowpit tests did not show any signs of instability either. Snowpack depth at this spot was more than 16ft (5m) deep in most places. 

Highway 89 was only plowed to the plow-turn-around at the bottom of Rubicon. We parked there and skinned to the base of Hidden Peak.