Moderate winds and cold temperatures on Red Lake Peak.

      I toured up to the Red Lake Peak cirque this morning to check out the surface hoar growth and conditions within this area. There was some thin cloud cover up high, temps were below freezing and no wind at the trailhead. As I climbed tree bombs were falling from the early morning solar radiation; however, the snow was soft and not setup under the trees in this area. Along the road to Crater Lake I observed some of the biggest surface hoar along the trip and it was in shaded isolated areas, not widespread and only in the lower elevations. As I climbed I did observe more widespread surface hoar in the upper elevations but was only .5-1mm in size and only on shaded aspects. Once I made it to the lake the wind was really blowing from the W-SW and cold. I saw light snow transportation with these winds but no real banners off the ridge lines and peaks overhead. There was areas of wind affected snow and small wind slab development in open and exposed areas. In protected N aspects @ 8700' the snow was soft on the top 20cms; It was fist hard and not moist enough to make a snow ball and near surface facets are beginning to form. From there I cruised around the lake to the more solar aspects were the snow was softening up from direct radiation. The top 2-3cms of snow was wet on the surface and softer below it. On a steeper spot a rolled a snowball down and a pinwheel did from and continue to grow. As I ascended up on a S facing aspect I probed around and found ~130cms of snow on these aspects. As I continued to climb up direct solar radiation for soft snow was crucial as a slight aspect change held refreezing snow. On my descent I stayed within the softened snow and  it provided a smooth ride to the bottom. Otherwise there were no recent signs of instabilities within the cirque.