Windy at Stevens Peak

Toured up to about 9000 feet on Stevens Peak until the wind said no. Ridges were consistently windy and on the scoured parts challenging to navigate. Gusts were in the gale range, but there were signficant times of moderate wind as well. Evidence of previous loose wet activity was present. Other than obvious wind slabs, no other instabilities were observed. 

Photo 1: Leeward shoulder of a windy ridge. The wind blown snow along this ridge was too soft to display cracking and other slab characteristics. 

Photo 2: Test pit wall. 175 cm total snow height. This location was north facing at 8700 feet and about a hundred feet below a ridge. I had better photos of the pit wall with the hand hardness, but chose this one b/c it captured the blowing snow. There was about 10 cms of soft new snow and decomposing fragments on the surface at this location. I got repeated ECTN 25 results about 10 cms above the 1/4 crust. 

Photo 3: Scoured highpoint on a ridge. Impressive scouring on the windward aspect of this mellow ridge feature. 

Photo 4: Very small skier triggered wind slab in lower elevation terrain that had received much of the wind transported snow. This was in steeper terrain with small gullies that varied from zero new snow on the SE part of the gully to a 3-5 inches of new wind slab on the NE part. 

Photo 5: Debris from small wind slab showing cohesive blocks still present. This debris ran about 20 feet. Some of the texture in the photo is previous loose wet debris from the weekend.