Rain crust to the top of West Shore Peaks.

A tour up to the top of Hidden Peak today revealed that the weather forecast and the recent weather had not been the same. Rain on snow during the previous 24 hours had clearly gone higher than the forecast snow level of 7,000'. We experienced a sometimes supportable, sometimes breakable 1 to 2 inch thick rain crust covered by a very patchy 0 to 1 inch of new snow on all aspects and elevations traveled between Hwy 89 at 6,600' and the summit ridge at 9,150'. Winds on the ridgetop at midday were nearly dead calm, very different than the strong NW wind forecast for today. A quick look at online weather stations as I type is indicating that winds have started to increase this afternoon.

We dug two test pits on our ascent. The first was to target recent storm slab instability at 8,200' on a NE aspect in below treeline terrain. Here we got only ECTN results. The second pit was to target wind slabs near the ridgetop at 9,150' on a NE aspect, barely above treeline. Here we also got only ECTN results.

Very minimal amounts of snow exist in this area for wind transport.

From Hwy 89 around 1 pm, we noted some D1 loose wet avalanches on open E aspects in both the Eagle Creek and Cascade Creek drainages.