Blowing rocks at Carson Pass

Strong winds with Extreme gusts today at Carson Pass.  Near the pindrop, I bailed from my goal of Meiss. Very firm windslab alternating with surfaces scoured down to ice made skinning without ski crampons difficult, and several gusts almost knocked me over. It didn't feel worth the risk of injury. Active wind transport during gusts observed, sometimes depositing snow in the usual loading areas and other times the snow traveled well beyond. Little wind transport observed in between gusts.

Pic 1: Small rocks blowing around on the snow surface. By my departure in late morning, winds had increased and medium sized braches were breaking off trees.

Pic 2: Cracking in wind slab limited in depth to 6" and cracks propagated only to the next weakness, like an old track or even thinner slab. If I wasn't near a weakness, I coudn't get cracks to propagate.

Although I could find the 12/4 buried surface hoar, shovel tilts and hand shears were not clean and planar at that depth, because the snow above the 12/4 SH layer was so faceted. Instead, the more impressive results were on facets below wind slab.