Hidden Peak Tour

We toured up to Hidden Peak today, beginning around 10am.  The lower slope up from the road was within the trees and consisted of softened ice.  Slightly crusty in spots.  Prior skin tracks were still a bit icy and difficult to climb.  Areas around trees were also firm and crusty/icy.  Additionally, there were a lot of tree branches as well as some branches/bushes exposed.  This made the descent a bit tricky (see photo).

The lower conditions changes to more dust on crust as we hit mid climb.  Still with prior skin tracks being icy.  Conditions were better on the east aspect than the south aspect.  More ice on the south aspect.  Due north was the best from top to bottom.  Very difficult to make an observation as the conditions varied depending on aspect and sun exposure.

Further towards the top, generally on south aspects, we observed wind scouring.  Some of that revealed shiny icy conditions. But when skinning on the icy sections, it easily crushed and broke through.

On the ridge, there was snow build up which did form a small cornice (see photo).  But this was minor and very firm.

There were no signs of instability on the entire route.  The snow felt firm the entire time and we did not observe any slides.