Castle Peak

Toured castle peak yesterday. The N side was completely sheltered from the wind. I dug a quick pit and did a compression test before skiing (forgot to get pictures). Pit showed 3-5" of fresh snow on top of a 1" crust. Under the crust was more soft snow. I could not get the compression test to cause failure and the crust showed no sign of propagating.

I climbed back up and came down the S side later in the day (1500). Wind was whipping. Wind slabs were starting to form but were 3" deep at most. Immediately on stepping onto the slope with skis the slab slid where I stepped. What slid was 3" deep, 30' wide and slid 45' down. It immediately propagated as wide as the terrain allowed (rocks on both sides). It slid on top of sun baked ice, I imagine it's only going to get worse as more snow fell overnight.