We don't need no stinkin' winds

Day off tour in the Lake McDonald area.

• Winds picked up late morning. Gusty, from the west-northwest. Blowing snow visible at the crest of the Apgar Range and other ridges in the area. Shallow drifts and slabs formed quickly, with short cracks around skis. These were a few inches thick and were poorly bonded to the snow below. Large dunes and drifts at upper-elevations.
• Some crossloading on southwesterly slopes - long, thin, lens-shaped drifts. 
• We mostly avoided wind-drifted terrain, so we didn't trigger any slabs.
• On westerly slopes, recent sunny weather left a melt freeze crust under the most recent snow. This crust exists to about 6000 feet.
• No natural avalanches visible on surrounding peaks, though recent snow may have camoflaged debris and crowns. 

We stuck to sheltered terrain, where we skied short, steep pitches that allowed us to keep eyes on each other. For longer, more continuous pitches, we chose planar slopes or concave slopes. We avoided convexities, especially at upper elevations. We accepted some overhead hazard from windward or very steep slopes that slide regularly and weren't being actively loaded by the wind.