Roundtop

According to my car, outside temps at Carson Pass at 7:00am were 46° (after registering temps as low as 36° in lower elevation Hope Valley minutes earlier). I visited the same spot where I had dug a quick hole to look at the refreeze on 3/19 and found a shallower refreeze today. It's tough to quantify but the refrozen crust today was more plasticy and its refreeze seemed less solid. I noticed evidence of more areas that didn't refreeze overnight, like snow under trees than I did two days ago. 

I've visited Carson Pass  zone several times in that last couple of weeks so I tried to mix it up today and visited the shoulder of Roundtop and the Sisters, curious to check out the lower angle east facing terrain between Roundtop Lake and Winnemucca Lake. The snow here is a bit textured and while it did soften around 9am, the quality of softening was inconsistent, which along with the texture made for less than ideal riding conditions. Regardless of the quality, the coverage is relatively good in this more north facing zone.  Unsurprisingly snow became soft and weak quickly as the day warmed. When putting on my skins after descending, my foot sunk easily to my calf, so I skinned back to the car.