Warm Down Low and Breezy up High on Hidden Peak

We went to Hidden Peak today for the views. Not the stunning views of Lake Tahoe, but rather the ability to look across into Desolation Wilderness onto numerous avalanche-prone slopes and see if any remaining evidence of large avalanche activity from during the storm existed.

We noticed a variety of snow conditions and numerous barely covered obstacles on the lower reaches of Hidden Peak. The snow remained soft on the shaded N aspects, but whenever we traversed into the sun we could feel wet, warm, sticky snow under our feet. Just below the soft snow, a thin crust existed. Once we got above about 7500 ft. coverage improved and the crust became harder to feel. As we continued up we also noticed numerous settlement cones around the trees that indicated consolidation in the snowpack. 

Near the top of Hidden, we started to see signs of NE wind effects in the form of a slightly stiffer wind crust on the surface. The open areas on the NE side of the summit of Hidden were scoured and sculpted by the NE winds and we could see snow blowing away from these slopes to the W side of the ridge. We went over there to get out of the wind and to see if any wind slabs were forming on that side. We found some small stiff wind slabs and did a quick hand pit on one of them. It showed weakness at the interface between the newly drifted snow and a crust about 10 inches below the surface. 

There on the west side of the ridge, we finally got to see the views we came for. Unfortunately, we could not make out any sure signs of large avalanches on the distant peaks. This lack of apparent crowns may only mean that slopes that did avalanche filled back in during the storm. We could see plumes of blowing snow off the high peaks and ridges as the NE winds scoured the N-NE-E aspects and moved snow over the ridge to the NW-W-SW aspects.