Winter then spring in Johnson Canyon

The day started with clouds, wind, and blowing snow. SW winds started as moderate/gusty, increasing to strong ~10am. Snow from the last storm was blowing and formed fairly soft, fairly touchy cornices on north and west ridges (pic 1).

We lapped a low-angle north aspect where the Thursday/Friday storm snow was soft and felt right-side-up. Wind slabs did not extend very far downslope and were soft (no noticable cracking).

Around noon the clouds cleared, the sun came out, and winds quieted down a little. South & west aspects got a bit of sun baking by the time we left around 1:00.

During an exit lap on the west side of the canyon we looked accross I-80 and saw a crown line below the west ridge of Trestle Peak (pic 2). Hard to see but looks like a wind slab failure, about a foot deep and maybe 200 feet wide.

We also saw significant wind transport farther south along the crest in the Anderson/Tinkers area (pic 3).