Unstable Wind and Storm Slabs on Jakes Peak

It was a challenging drive down to the West Shore this morning with snowfall of 2''/hour and strong SW winds producing blizzard conditions with limited visibility.  Snowfall continued through the morning and began to have partially clearing by midday.  Strong to gale force SW winds continued in strength and were transporting intense amounts of snow.  Cracking was observed while breaking trail with some areas producing long shooting cracks.  We saw a couple natural wind slab avalanches and many loose dry sluffs that ran long distances on steeper slopes on nearby terrain.  Small convexities would break and cause small avalanches on these micro terrain features with failures up to 1.5' deep.  Thick wind slabs existed higher up on the mountain above 8600' in near treeline terrain with some wind pressed snow extending down into below treeline areas.  We remained on slopes that were around 30 degrees in steepness and avoided steeper terrain that we thought would avalanche with the current conditions.