Vicious and unnerving winds, and swirling, especially above 9400 on the Willow Ridgeline. Once we passed "Little Willow," the winds got real hairy. Moderate winds gusting strong, just past noon, so the forecast bore out. Snow wasn't far behind. We gave cornices a wide berth, preferring the dependable stability of wind-blasted terrain, but none of them looked very toothy when we got a better look from safer positions. Two- to three-inch windslabs in Neil's Bullshit Bowl, but too low angle to be responsive.

Complicated snowpack is right. We came across an abandoned snowpit (Fill in your pits, people! Please and thanks!) at the base of the Willow Ridge where the skintrack begins climbing (8750', SW) and took a look before cleaning up somebody else's mess. Found about a foot of fist-soft snow on top of crust sandwich, atop a buried layer of sugary facets about 3-4 feet down. Unreactive in the deep snowpack and low angle, and unrepresentative of our intended terrain, but surprising and interesting nonetheless.