Incline Lake Peak Observations

We had sunny skies this morning at Incline Lake Peak with a cold start to our day with moderate SW winds.  E, NE, and low angle N aspects had been wetted yesterday and had a variety of sun crust formation today.  Soft unconsolidated snow existed on steeper N aspects that had not been receiving direct solar radiation.  The recent SW/W winds were in the moderate range today with some periods of strong winds.  Wind scouring and some wind crusts existed on northerly aspects in more exposed areas with large cornices along the Incline Lake Peak ridgeline.  Small wind slabs up to 6" deep have formed in these areas over the last couple days.  Today, these wind slabs had a hard slab feel to them with limited cracking observed.  Dropping cornice chunks on these wind loaded areas did not produce any wind slab failures.  We left the area in the early afternoon and did not see any evidence of wet loose instabilities.