Rapid Wind Loading in Tamarack Area

We got up early this mroning for a tour near Tamarack. We ascended the saddle just west of fireplug and found that there was significant wind scouring in this area from predominately easterly winds. Small bushes and dead tree limbs were exposed, making skinning a little bit of a challenge. Once we crested the saddle, we skied the mellow north slope behind Fireplug down to Galena Creek. Snowpack here seemed fairly stable with 3-4 inches or so of new, very light and fluffy snow. Making simple pole probes, I could feel variable densities in the new snow and a persistent weak layer below the new snow at about 130-140 cm depth. Some short pitches we skied were around 33-34 degrees; besides some minor sluff, there was little to no reactivity in the snow when skied over. On our second lap, we noticed the skin track near the ridgeline had already been completely buried with wind-blown snow.

On the ski back to the parking area, some wind slabs were beginning to set up on the south face of the saddle west of fireplug. These small and thin (5-6 feet wide, 3-4 inches deep)  wind slabs did release when skied over, but did not propogate. Even as of the writing this afternoon, there's a good chance that those wind slabs are larger and more reactive.