Mt Price / Chickadee Ridge

Toured north side of Chickadee Ridge this afternoon (2-6pm). Weather was cool, with a mix of clouds and sun. Winds picked up around 3pm. The new snow from this week has settled quite a bit, with settlement cones/cracks around trees (pic 1), ski penetration generally 4-8," and boot penetration ~12." No cracking or whumphing on the skin up. Stomping on a wind-loaded, mid-slope, convex rollover produced minor cracking after several stomps (pic 2). Hand pits in sheltered N and NNE areas generally showed rightside up snow (F, 4F, 1F) 8-12" deep above a 1 inch crust (pic 3). Did not see obvious facets or buried hoar layer around the crust.The snow surface varied from aspect to aspect, with mostly cold soft snow on shaded North aspects, a 1-2" crust in protected areas that got sun, some random mid-slope wind fins, and some punchier wind-affected snow on the western portion of the zone.