Strong winds and sunshine on Red Lake Peak

Warm, sunny, and windy day at Red Lake Peak. The winds were strong in the morning, then shortly after noon they increased more, making it difficult to manage gear even away from ridgetops. Winds seemed to have a minimal influence over surface melt - sunny slopes both exposed to and sheltered from the wind had 1-2" of surface melt. No intact surface hoar was observed, and facets required punching below the firm surface on cold slopes to observe.

Pic 1: Cold slopes were deceiving - they appeared firm and "locked-up" with old tracks and minimal ski penetration, but punching through the surface revealed loose, weak facets. In places, we could push our poles over a foot deep into the facets.

Pic 2: A previous wet loose avalanche above Crater Lake, likely from some time in the last few days. I don't know if the dirty debris was from moving over the few rocks in the path and the exposed ground to the side of the path, or if it was dirt that was later wind blown and captured by the rough surface.

Pic 3: Lumps and bumps from the ground appearing through the thin, aged snowpack.

Pic 4: We turned around when winds picked up in the early afternoon. We observed some localized wind transport around Crater Lake. Off in the distance, Round Top had enough wind transport to be visible from almost four miles away. Somewhat surprising that there was any loose snow available for transport.