Reactive Small (D1) Wind Slabs on Castle Peak

We toured the Castle and Andesite Peak areas today to look for new wind slab development and at the bonding between the new snow and old snow surfaces.  Up to 4 to 6'' of low density snow has accumulated in this area since Tuesday night.  This snow sits on top of the Jan 4 rain crust.  Areas below treeline and protected near treeline terrain have a thin amount of old snow from last weekend on top of this crust.  In some areas, faceted snow exists above and below this Jan 4 rain crust.  The bonding between this new low density snow and the old rain crust remains generally poor.  Small loose dry sluffing was common in steep terrain throughout this area.

Shifting winds this morning started to scour some of the areas on the NW side of Castle Peak.  We found reactive wind slabs in lee areas on Castle and Andesite Peaks.  All these wind slabs were small (D1) and did not extend very far downslope.  Wind slabs were up to 8-12'' deep with cornices built out and reactive to ski kicks.  All of these wind slabs were failing on the Jan 4 rain crust.