Impressive wind effect below treeline on Ophir Peak

We toured Ophir Peak today to see ridgetop wind slabs and gauge the amout of wind effect that occurred below treeline during last night's wind event.

Starting out in wind sheltered, heavily treed terrain we could see signs of 10 to 12 inches of storm snow settlement around the trees.

As we gained elevation, it became apparent that all but the lowest couple hundred vertical feet on the peak had escaped last night's wind event. Wind drifts were widespread even in heavily treed N aspect terrain, well below the ridgetop.

As we approached treeline, hard wind slabs became prominent. We performed one RB that gave us a RB6 partial block result on the surface wind slab that was less than 1 foot thick. Skiing through terrain produced only isolated pockets of cracking in 1 to 3 inch thick wind slabs.