Strong Winds and Sunny Weather on Jakes

Jakes Peak provided a great place to see a variety of elevations and several different aspects today. We parked on the south side and climbed up the S and E facing gully to the saddle between Emerald Point and Jakes Peak. We expected to encounter strong SW winds near the top of the peak. Those winds found us at much lower elevations. The strong winds hit us on the open apron at about 7000 ft. Skinning uphill was easy with the wind at our backs and twice as hard when we turned into the wind. The stronger gusts would knock us off balance even in these midslope areas. These strong winds also kept the snow surface cool and firm. We ended up switching to ski crampons for the ascent while other people put skis/boards on their packs and kicked steps. 

We did find some areas where the snow surface had melted and softened on S and SE aspects while we climbed. We took note of those and planned to use them for the descent. At the top of the ridge, the winds increased. We did not see much blowing snow since most areas were already scoured, but we did see chunks of ice and small tree branches blowing across slopes. We scouted around on a few aspects up high and found exposed crusts and wind-affected snow. 

We returned to the areas on S and SE aspects where the snow had softened to descend. About 1 to 3 inches of soft wet snow existed on a supportable crust on these slopes at noon. Ski cuts did not trigger signs of wet snow instabilities today. However, we did see some pinwheels leftover from the previous day's warming. Below about 7200 ft, the snow got wet and sticky.