Intense Wind Up at Hyalite Peak Basin

Toured up to below Hyalite Peak yesterday morning before the storm. Despite all of the wet snow down low in hyalite, we found a dry snowpack beginning around ~8400’. Around 11am, winds really picked up in the alpine, with constant spindrift coming off cliffs of all aspects. We found lots of wind-affected snow, mainly scoured with the occasional 2-inch wind skin, but the wind was swirling in every direction and we couldn’t pinpoint an exact aspect being loaded.

In areas where the snowpack was deeper (>60cm) hand pits and probing into the snowpack revealed a fairly uniform structure, while thinner areas of the snowpack had more faceting. 
 

The trail to hyalite peak is thin in many spots, but this storm should make the approach much better.