NE Winds on Lincoln Ridge

Heading out the road to Lincoln Ridge we noticed 3 to 4 inches of new snow on top of the rain crust in sheltered areas around Yuba Pass. We could also see surface hoar sparkling in open areas. In many sunny places, the surface hoar was already starting to fall over and break down by mid-morning. Once we gained some elevation, the recent snow got a little deeper (4 to 5 inches on the rain crust) in the shaded areas. On the sunny slopes, the new snow had already settled and new snow depths were much shallower (1 to 2 inches on the rain crust). We did notice some small cracking around our skis as we skinned but we did not see any other signs of lingering storm slab instability. Our pit in sheltered below treeline terrain also did not show any signs of instability. We did notice a crust sandwich (crust - softer snow - crust) which will bear watching. 

Once we gained the ridge, we saw large cornices looming above wind-loaded slopes. We found a couple of small test slopes and were able to drop some small cornice pieces onto these test slopes. They triggered some small sluffs but nothing else. Ski cuts on the wind-loaded test slopes also did not show any signs of lingering wind slab instability. The NE winds gained strength as we ascended, and they were blowing snow across the ridge and scouring the previously loaded slopes. In some area the NE winds had exposed the rain crust on the ridge. We descended in sheltered areas where the soft snow had not been wind-affected.

On the way out we traversed over a S-SW facing slope and found warm and wet snow on the surface.