Minor wind slab and sun crust near Peak 9,269'.

On the ridgetop between Hidden Peak and Peak 9,269' we found evidence of recent NE winds and light amounts of blowing snow. Wind pillow areas created by NE winds held wind slab up to 6 inches thick at cracked easily under the weight of a skier on S-SW-W aspects. The more commonly wind loaded N-NE-E aspects were wind scoured and showed no signs of cracking from skier weight.

On S and W aspects a sun crust that likely formed on Tuesday was buried under about five inches of recent storm snow. Monitoring for faceting around this crust is worthwhile leading up to the next storm cycle loading event. This sun crust was prominent along the W side of the ridgetop at 9,200' as well as at lower elevations in open areas on solar aspects.