Mt. Judah

The recent snow provided supportable coverage from the parking lot at Donner summit, but numerous rocks and other obstacles still existed, especially below about 7300 ft. Coverage improved as we gained more elevation. We saw signs that the snowpack continues to settle and consolidate during our ascent, including settlement cracks around trees and unremarkable snowpit tests. We also tried ski-cutting a few test slopes and kicked on several cornices above the test slopes; neither produced results. The strong winds during the storm left their mark on the snow surface, with wind-etched features along many of the ridges and on some open slopes. The E-NE winds increased while we were out, but they had not yet started moving much snow. If they continue to increase, they could start moving more of the soft snow that remains on the N-NE-E aspects.