Strong wind on lower Casaval Ridge to 8,700 feet

I toured out of Bunny Flat this afternoon to get some data on what the strong wind was doing past Horse Camp near bottom of Casaval Ridge to 8,700 feet. There was a lot of snow getting blown around. Large plumes of snow were observed on the south and west sided of Mount Shasta. I recorded an average height of 53 inches (135 cm) total snow at Horse Camp. I then continued west to the base of Casaval Ridge. There was a small debris pile from a natural D1 avalanche on a west facing slope at 8,600 feet. This avalanche likely started in a steep roll over in a small bunch of stunted trees, see avalanche observations for more information. I dug a pit in some lower angle terrain south of the slide. Tests showed little signs of instability. See picture below for more snow pack and pit data. Snow surface texture was variable with an icy hard packed wind crust in exposed spots with filled in pockets of softer wind deposited snow above treeline.  Snow surface texture below treeline was soft F hardness snow with 6-12 (15-30 cm) inches of ski penetration.