Active wind transport at Carson Pass

Light graupel began falling around noon, and the wind was blowing it into depressions and onto leeward slopes. Graupel transitioned to wind broken precip particles as snowfall rates intensified to an estimated 1" per hour. Wind was moving snow throughout our tour, causing near whiteout conditions along the exposed ridge near Frog Lake. Surface crusts were very aspect dependent, indicating the crust was from warming yesterday, and not from rain or wet snow on Wednesday. This distinction could be important to locate this layer in the future, as there was already some early stage faceting under it today. We chose a low angle descent from Frog Lake to the old Red Lake road, and found several large cornice pieces that were recently broken off and had triggered a small avalanche. Traversing through the trees below adjacent steep slopes, we saw evidence of other similar events. Debris was party covered by snowfall, but the exposed pieces were still angular and fresh looking. I'd estimate these cornice failures and small avalanches (D1.5) were 24-48 hours old.