Blowing snow and hard slabs on Andesite Peak.

We toured on Andesite Peak this morning for a look at hard slabs and drifting snow. Wind affected snow surfaces became increasingly pronounced as we gained elevation. Large sastrugi and wind pillows were encountered below and above treeline. This was encountered on the E and W aspects that we treveled. Some thin, breakable surface melt-freeze crust was also encountered in sun exposed areas following yesterday's warming event.

Near the ridgetop, blowing and drifting snow were visible. This despite the strong to gale force wind events that have occurred since the last snowfall from both the SW and E. We observed drifting snow depositing as smooth, hard wind slabs on NW and W aspect terrain under today's E winds. We ski cut a few small hard slab test slopes and got no results.