Wet Snow and East Winds on Castle Peak

We went to Frog Lake Cliffs to investigate the cornice fatality from 3/20/21. On the way there and back we saw many aspects and elevations on Castle Peak and Frog Lake Cliffs. Climbing up the S side of Castle in the morning we could see NE winds blowing snow across the upper ridges. We encountered some small drifts of snow on W facing slopes but ski cuts on the small test slopes did not produce unstable results. Along the ridge we saw, scoured surfaces and more blowing snow. Large overhanging cornices existed along many ridgelines on Castle, Basin, and along Frog Lake Cliffs.

We descended down from the ridge using a lower angle wind-sheltered N-facing slope. This area held soft cold snow. As we turned the corner onto a SE-facing slope for the final part of the descent, the snow started to get wet and heavy. We also started to notice small roller balls coming off the rocks. We spent a little time at Frog Lake and by the time we started back up the sunny slope around noon, the snow had gotten wetter and more roller balls were coming off the rocks. We stuck to low angle slopes on the ascent back out. We were expecting warm and sticky snow on the S side of Castle but the NE winds were blowing just enough to keep this exposed slope cooler. Once we got into more sheltered terrain, ski cuts on small sunny test slopes would trigger sluffs of wet loose snow.