Soft Snow and Some Wet Snow on Tamarack Peak

The SW winds did increase today and did get strong enough to blow snow around, but there was not much soft snow left on the windward sides of the ridges. I only saw intermittent and minor blowing snow as I traversed along the E ridge of Tamarack Peak. I did see scoured surfaces on the windward side of the ridge and signs of wind-loading like ripples, drifted snow, and small cornices leftover from Monday's storm on the leeward side. My ski kicks and cuts on previously wind-loaded test slopes did not produce signs of lingering instability. On one of my test slopes, I stepped a few feet above my ski cut to see if it would crack after I had undercut it. It did not fracture until I was a few inches above my previous ski cut. I did get some cracking in one wind-loaded spot, but the cracking was less than an inch deep. It was just a surficial wind crust.

As far as warming snow, cloud cover persisted in this area till about 11 am. Then some slopes started to get direct sunshine. The snow did heat up on these slopes, and the top few inches got wet and heavy. Then more clouds moved in, and the warming slowed down. I was able to trigger some small rollerballs and pinwheels, but I did not see any signs of larger wet snow instabilities.