Blowing Snow, Wind Slabs, and Shooting Cracks on Ophir Peak

The sun came out, and precipitation stopped on the drive to Mt. Rose. We thought this might be the storm's end, but winds and snow picked back up once we got to the trailhead. Blowing snow obscured visibility across the meadow. Once we got into the trees, we found consistent soft snow. We could still feel the density change from a few days ago if we probed through the new snow with our poles. Later in the day, when we dug a snowpit, it confirmed what we had been feeling with pole probes, hand pits, and while breaking trail: right side up new snow on top of an increasingly dense lower snowpack with a thick, firm rain crust about 2.5 feet below the surface. We also probed to the bottom of the snowpack several times on N-NE facing terrain between 8800 ft and 8200 ft. We could still feel the softer Dec 1 facet layer buried under 6+ feet of well-consolidated snow and rain crusts.

When we left the shelter of the trees and hit the ridge, we encountered intense blowing snow and strong winds. Leeward-facing aspects held slabs of wind-drifted snow up to 18 inches thick. We avoided the steeper wind-loaded areas and only tested small slopes. Ski kicks on these triggered cracks that shot across the entire slope. As we skinned up the low-angle slopes along the ridge, we also started shooting cracks that traveled 20-30 feet away. Despite all of the cracking, we did not see any wind slab avalanches, but the blowing snow also made it hard to see into the steeper terrain. We also gave these areas a wide berth to increase our safety margins.