Back in the southwest flow

Skiumah Lake acts like a wind-tunnel during Southwest wind events so we went searching for wind slab issues there.  We found them. 

• 2-3" of new snow, accompanied by increasing southwest winds (strong gusts) and moderate snow transport.
• Above Skiumah Lake, we easily triggered numerous soft wind slabs on rollovers and crossloaded terrain features, generally 2-6" thick. A few were up to 1'.  These were all breaking on low-density storm snow that accumulated before the winds increased.  We also noted a handful of naturals.  All of these were small in size.  This problem was predictable and relatively easy to manage; we avoided terrain where a small slide would have bad consequences and steered away from features with the heaviest wind loading.  
• We found minor wind effect in Cascade Creek, with good stability on all aspects, even near ridgelines.