Wind transport of new snow
Observation: Summit
Location: Tenderfoot
Choose to travel to Summit Lake area pursuit of the deep and soft stuff. Seemed to be a busy day when driving through the Turnagain area.
Standard uptrack on Tenderfoot for a couple laps, descended once down the ridge and once off the south face. Winds seemed to pick up in the afternoon, with noticeable wind affect above treeline, changing the snow surface and burying the skin track between the first and second lap.
Phenomenal riding conditions.
Observer Comments
Weather
Cloudy skies but with some faint openings letting light thru.
Moderate winds above treeline, transporting the loose new snow, seeming to come from the NNE.
Moderate temps.
Snow surface
Deep soft snow in protected areas.
Soft windpack in exposed areas, snow shearing off when stepping above the skintrack (taking away the support).
Snowpack
Snow depth increasing with elevation.
Pole probing gave the feeling of a right side-up snowpack above a crust with a weaker snow above the ground.
A quick and informal snowpit (~2400ft, W aspect, HS~100cm) revealed an interface between ~20cm of new snow and older soft snow, and crust/facet/crust/facet combo near the base.
Aforementioned interface found when conducting a handpit test, but upper new snow was relatively unconsolidated, and snow below was soft as well.
Skied somewhat steep terrain w/o incident.