Toured in upper LCC, timing my tour for frontal passage. Pretty wild with very strong winds, intense pelting from graupel, and thundersnow! Following frontal passage as temps cooled snow became lighter density, but winds remained in the strong category from westerly directions. Strong winds such as this often drift on all aspects, and I was finding fresh drifts and cornices around the compass.

However, despite expecting conditions to become touchy with the period of winds and heavy snowfall, at most I could only find pockets of wind-loaded snow. Most of these were shallow (5-10 cms/2-4") although I also found some fresh drifts up to 45 cms (18"). But there were isolated pockets, and not widespread.

I left the canyon at about 4:30 pm, and things were much quieter with snowfall ending and winds diminishing.

Photos showing downed trees (there were several), as well as a very sensitive cornice on a north aspect that broke above my ski, and the clearing skies to the west by the late afternoon.

Video commentary showing likely avalanche problem for Friday.