The Throne - Cracking and Wind Loading

We rode into The Throne, and skinned up the ridge. While skinning we saw cracks in front of our skis in the 6” of new snow. The wind was gusting from the north most of the day–our skin track was filled in by the time we skied out. Where we dug, HS was 130 cm (~4 feet) on the NE aspect at 8,100 feet. ECTN 8 on the new snow, and ECTN 24 at a layer of graupel about 1 foot down from the surface. This layer was noted by skiers in Texas Meadows yesterday.

While skiing back to our sleds we triggered a small slide in a wind loaded pocket of snow on a ~35º, isolated terrain feature (SS-ASu-R1-D0.5). This was on a southerly aspect, at about 7,000 feet, 4-6” down on surface hoar, 15’ wide, 30’ vertical run.