Upper Blue Lake

After the Lake Tahoe Snowmobilers' meetup in the Hope Valley sno-park, I joined some club members for an informal ride. We saw several recent looking crowns, but upon closer inspection all the debris was old. Some of the slopes had been reloaded by continued winds, but we did not see signs of instability at these locations today. On the south side of The Nipple overlooking Upper Blue Lake, the steep and sunny slopes were less wet on the surface than expected. A light east wind prevented excessive warming of the surface. There was also a firm and supportable layer just under the surface - boot penetration, and snowmobile ski and track penetration, did not go deeper than this.

Sunny slopes were wet at the surface in the afternoon, but only the surface. Dry snow was observed just below the surface, and a firm, supportable layer was just below that