Began skinning from Solitude Entry #2 around 3pm, during a break in today's storm. Usually encounter hurricane force winds on the ridgeline, but it was quite calm for a few hours.
It snowed all day today. For the 2h 45m I was outside, it didn't snow for 30 minutes.
The southerly aspects along the willow knob rigdeline were predictibly, windscoured to smithereens.
On Northerly side, many windslab humps (about 7-15cm, or 0.25-0.50ft) in height were deposited throughout the dense trees. The biggest accumulations on the steep, convex rollovers. No cornice formations observed just yet - tomorrow, probably.
Upper sections presumably exposed to the sun felt like "Dust on crust"
Treed sections were soft, with plenty of wind drifted snow strewn about a surface of weak snow.
A ski cut prior to approaching the rollover produced fairly benign sluffs. Neil's is fairly low angle, so you will get different results on something steeper. especially after tonights loading event.
By the time I finished my descent (around 5pm), the sun had set. The pines and aspens quaked loudly & shedded the new snowfall from tonights storm. Observed plenty of snow being transported back in the NW direction.
