Quick report
Today I toured from Three Creeks sno park to Dutchman Via Tam Rim and Ball Butte. The first 1.5 miles from three creeks were melted out to pavement. I found 4” of new snow at three creeks lake. I dug a hasty pit at the top of Tam on a north slope at 7300’. Here I found 20cm of new snow above a very saturated old snow pack. An CT yielded a moderate result at the new/old interface. Winds across the plateau and into the alpine were moderate from the SSW. On the summit of Ball at 7950’ on the North aspect I found 40cm of storm snow over highly saturated old snow. In testing this snow had some moderate reactivity within it at some density changes. Overall, my confidence in the snowpack grew throughout the day. The storm snow was very heavy and wet, and was well bonded to the old snow everywhere i investigated. Even on steep lee slopes i couldn't get the storm snow to generate much movement. The weather was much more clear on the northern side of my tour, and deteriorated to very low visibility by the time i got to ball butte. Moderate snowfall was on and off as i picked my way down ball and back to dutchman, with the sun making more and more frequent appearances by the time i finished my tour at 3:30. Temperatures hovered just below freezing, but i did experience some glopping in open meadows near tam where the sun had been able to shine long enough. I did see a small amount of wind transport occurring in the alpine, but not as much as i would have expected given the new snow and moderate winds.