Unstable Facets and Wind Slabs on Andesite

We went to Andesite Peak today since we knew we could access low-angle terrain where the old facets existed under the new snow and stay on the ridge to look at wind slab formation higher on the peak. We could feel the old, weak snow below about a foot of new snow with our poles along the approach. We also stepped off the skin track several times to see if we could trigger any whumpfs or cracks. We caused some cracks and got unstable results on a quick snowpit test (ECTP 10). These observations indicated that the new snow was starting to overload the old facet layer.

We continued up the peak using low-angle slopes without any steep slopes above them. As we moved into the more exposed upper elevation parts of Andesite, we stopped feeling weak snow with our poles. We dug into the snow and found less widespread weak snow below the storm snow in areas strong winds had previously scoured. This scouring also meant more exposed and barely covered rocks. Intense-blowing snow had started to build wind slabs along the ridge. Ski-kicks triggered some cracking and wind slab failures on small test slopes. These failed on weaknesses within the storm snow. We descended from the peak using low-angle slopes and our up track to avoid exposing ourselves to steeper terrain.