Wind slabs and transport on Castle Peak

We skied the NW trees and East side of the back bowl on Castle Peak today. Strong East winds and wind transport were observed throughout the day. On the ascent up the NW trees, we observed frequent cracking of small wind slabs even well below treeline. See Photo 1. On the East facing slopes of the back bowl on Castle Peak, wind affected snow was less pervasive than in the NW trees and soft snow conditions where much easier to find.

We observed up to 1.5 cm tall surface hoar near the castle peak summer trailhead at 10:30, We looked for similarly obvious surface hoar in sheltered locations in the NW trees, Round Valley, and SE through NE aspects of the back bowl on Castle Peak, but instead saw various degrees of wind affected snow.