Quick report
What a difference a day makes. From bright sunshine and warm temps yesterday into the cloud with minimal visibility today. We bailed on our initial plan to head out toward Wright Mountain when you couldn't see more than about 20 feet in front of you on Snow Lake. We heard some snow falling from somewhere while we were stumbling around in the grey, but couldn't confirm where. So we headed back to the Divide, talked to an avalanche class or two, and then got out of the field early. In our short time, we observed precariously hanging blocks of snow on rocky ledges, open waterfalls, moist surfaces, and we were even able to push some snow on a small test slope to get the makings of a wet loose avalanche. Overall, it was a fairly sleepy day in the Alp Valley without many travelers and mostly poor skiing conditions.
Since we were out earlier than expected, we took some time to drive around the Pass and get a feel for conditions east to west. The west side looks like 5 inches of rain fell early this week followed by 50 degree weather... lower elevations are bare and there is a lot of running water. On the east side, coverage is a bit better, but still low for this time of year. Driving through Gold Creek and Crystal Springs Snoparks, we noted that there is still plenty of snow on the trails for snomobiles and x-country skiing.
Recent avalanche activity was the only sign of instability we observed.Weather
Low clouds and areas of fog. Much colder than the past few days but still above freezing. The slightest spit of rain rolled through around 1:30 when we were leaving the Pass.
Snowpack
The upper snowpack was moist everywhere we traveled today and lacked a surface crust this morning at lower elevations.
Avalanche
Lots of avalanche debris from this week dating back to the AR event and warm days since. I don't think any debris was from today but some was likely as recent as yesterday or even last night.