Silver Peak Observations

We toured up the Pole Creek drainage today to ski on the northwest and northeast sides of Silver Peak. Warm temps and calm conditions at the lower elevations made for a sweaty approach. As we reached higher elevations, we found about a foot of new snow from last night's storm. When we got to treeline on the north ridge, at about 8000', the wind went abruptly from mostly calm to moderate in speed out of the west, and the snow surface changed accordingly (see photo 3). Whereas we had not seen blowing snow off of the summit from below on our approach in the morning, we observed sustained moderate blowing snow above treeline for the duration of the afternoon (video). 

From high on the north ridge, we could see over to the site of the large deep slab avalanche from February 2, on a NE aspect below the unnamed "flattop" peak. We noticed a fresh, and much smaller, avalanche from last night's storm. (photo 1) 

Throughout our tour, including on our exit around 3pm, we saw 2-3mm surface hoar on the surface in open areas below treeline. (photo 2)