Quick report
We found nice spring like skiing on the south face of Mt Owen at 12:30PM. Normal caution travel advice fit well for our tour, with no notable avalanche problems encountered.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- Trace
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Clear sky during the AM, some high thin clouds moved in during the PM. Steady light westerly winds in exposed alpine areas.
Snowpack
A trace of new snow fell in the alpine overnight. Notable because it laid down a thin layer of low-density snow above the many hard crusts and windboard surfaces in the alpine. This new snow will likely facet where it doesn't get cooked or blown away, and could act as future weak layer.
Small surface hoar was lingering on ridgelines and on a northerly facing slope just below the summit ridge of Mt Owen.
SSE-facing slopes from ~12,800ft to 13,000 had surface crusts ranging from 5 to 15 cm thick, mostly depending on slope angle. In one location just below a ridge at 12,800, the snowpack had gotten wet to the ground (slope angle around 40 to 45 degrees). On a 30 degree slope, just the upper 5 cm had gotten wet.