Deep Snow and Wind Transport on Andesite Ridge

~2 ft of new snow had fallen in sheltered areas on Andesite Peak in the last 24 hours. This new snow was light and cold. Our skis would sink to the bottom of the new snow while we were breaking trail. We observed that the new snow remained loose that it had very little cohesion. Ski kicks on a few test slopes only produced ski width wide loose snow sluffs in sheltered terrain. Quick hand pits, probing with our ski poles, and other general observations also did not find any signs of storm slab instability in the sheltered areas. 

Once we got into more exposed near treeline terrain, we started to notice active wind transport and signs of previous wind loading. Ski kicks on above wind-loaded test slopes caused shooting cracks in the wind features like cornices and drifts, but wid did not cause any new wind slab failures on these test slopes. We did notice snow-covered avalanche debris and avalanche crowns on most test slopes and other avalanche paths on Andesite (see this observation for photos). The fact that most things had already slid naturally last night may have prevented us from causing new wind slab failures on the test slopes we kicked. We did some snowpit tests near the flank of one of the larger avalanches that was now almost completely covered by new snow and found some signs of improving stability. In the most exposed areas, the current wind loading had started to form new cornices and ski kicks near those did cause them to break. 

We descended low angle slopes and ended up having to follow the skin track in many places because of the depth of the snow. On the way out, we noticed that our skin track had refilled in wind-exposed areas.