Windy near Talking Mountain

Cold and windy touring around Talking Mt today. We gambled that the wind wouldn't be too bad on the ridge and were mostly right until we got within shouting distance of Talking Mt when strong SW winds motivated us to transition quickly. While snow was being moved at other locations, like Echo Lake, the south facing side of the ridge in this area was mostly a firm melt freeze crust and didn't provide soft snow for wind transport. 

Surface conditons along the ridge consisted of still soft snow on the shady side and firm crust on the sunny side. Snow on the south facing side of the ridge was mostly edgable but coverage is going quickly here and we had to shoulder our skis and boot a section when the only continious line of snow had an old super slick skin track on it. We had entertained the possibility of touring over to Echo Peak but coverage on its south facing flanks was patchy with multiple mandatory walking sections. Once onto the north facing slopes of Talking Mt. we found sections of soft snow but enough sucker patches of firm surface crust to keep us on our toes. I dug two mitt pits on the descent and found a few inches of soft new snow sitting on top of a thin 1F breakable crust with a pencil hard crust just below. 

While skinning back over Echo Lake in the early afternoon winds seemed to be increasing with the occasional gale force gust blowing plumes of snow across the lake. 

Photo 1: Refrozen cinnamon rolls. The snow on these south facing slopes was mostly firm but edgeable melt freeze crust.

Photo 2:  Windy near summit. Looking west towards the summit of Talking Mt. 

Photo 3: Trying to capture gusts of wind moving snow around Echo Lake