Flatiron/Needle Peak

Riding quality was:

OK

We summited flatiron today; stormy day with low visibility (<100' at times). Mashed potatoes in the forest and a crust with about 1-2" of fresh snow on top. Everything was very wind affected and the wind was blowing real hard. I kicked off some wind-loaded pockets on the ridge, but no propagation or sliding of test slopes.

However, skiing a steeper slope (>35) on the backside of needle, the 1" of snow was releasing in small slabs off the crust... something to keep an eye on with more loading. We did not observe this crust behaviour elsewhere.