Wind Slabs and Blowing Snow on Castle Peak

The "break" in the storm turned out to have plenty of wind, blowing snow, and new snow on Castle Peak today. Along the ridges blowing snow blasted us and obscured visibility at times. It also added more snow to the already wind-loaded slopes on the leeward side of the ridge. We kicked on several test slopes when we reached the exposed ridge above Castle Pass, triggering some 15-20 ft shooting cracks. Higher on the ridge, we triggered a D1 wind slab on a more exposed test slope. These wind slabs all failed 10 to 15 inches down on softer snow below the more dense slabs (wind slabs were 4 finger + hard, and the softer snow was Fist hard). Large overhanging cornices kept us away from many other test slopes. We carefully avoided any larger wind-loaded areas and gave them even more space than usual due to the poor visibility and those large cornices. Windward slopes and ridges had various wind-affected surfaces on them. 

In more sheltered terrain, we found more consistent, softer snow. We could feel density changes in the storm snow with our pole plants and hands. We also triggered some small cracks on steep test slopes, but these only extended 5 to 15 inches from our skis. Still, those small signs of possible lingering storm slab instability kept us on less steep slopes with excellent snow conditions. 

On our way down, we ran into several guides who told us about wind slab avalanches they had seen and similar lingering signs of storm slab instability on Andesite Peak.