Howling

Headed out for casual day off tour. Home by lunch, and not cuz we were hungry. 

• Strong winds and light to moderate snow showers right from the highway. Both picked up in intensity as the morning progressed. Wind directions were variable - upslope, downslope, crosslope - though mostly westerly.
• Moderate to intense blowing snow, with drifts up to 12" thick above ~4800 feet, especially near mid-elevation ridges. Our uptrack at 5000 disappeared in less than 90 minutes.
• The new and drifting snow rapidly formed a soft but stiff slab above yesterday's snow surface. This thin slab cracked around our skis, though cracks weren't propagating more than a meter or two.
• We triggered 2 small (D1) wind slabs on a lee slope by stepping on a cornice or drift. These didn't involve dangerous amounts of snow, because they had only been forming for a couple hours. Both, however, propagated widely.
• We triggered one small soft slab (D1) remotely on our descent, on a steep, mid-slope convexity at 5400 feet. 

Given the poor weather, difficulty communicating, and rising danger, we cut our day short after one run.