Wind Slab near Carson Pass

We toured from Hwy 88 with the goal of skiing the NW bowl of Stevens Peak (10,043'). Skinning up to the peak was made doable by the Alpine Mine Road followed by some slippery skinning through bushes and up a SE aspect. Once we got eyes on the NW bowl, we noticed that most of it was completely wind scoured and covered in rocks. One member of the party took a little slip on "slide for life" conditions and took a nice ride - luckily it was in low angle terrain and she was able to stop quickly.

The party skinned down further on the ridge to shoot for low angle terrain in trees to avoid the rocky slopes. Even the NW facing trees down to about 9,000' were completely wind scoured with a breakable crust that made ski quality less than ideal (the snowboarder enjoyed it, though). As we toured up a west facing slope (still under 30 degrees) we observed shooting cracks and about 3-4" thick stubborn wind slab. Wind scouring and Wind Slab were observed on multiple aspects and elevations throughout the day. We also observed melt freeze crusts throughout the day.

We did observe facets about 1' underneath the snow surface, but did not perform any snowpack tests.

Upon beginning our tour back to the car, we noticed a natural D1 wind slab avalanche that probably occured during last night's wind loading. It was a small pocket, but above rocky terrain that and could have sent a skier down some steep sketchy terrain. We were happy we chose to stay out of avalanche terrain all day to avoid both the wind slab problem as well as the persistent slab problem. And yet, we had an amazing day with clear, sunny skies, minimal winds, and lots of stoke!