Rubicon Peak

It feels like May, and the snow coverage below 8000 ft is starting to look more like that. More rocks and bare ground melt out every day. Even on the north aspects of the approach to Rubicon, we were dodging rocks and moving around exposed ground. Snow coverage improves at the upper elevations. 

The melt-freeze crust remained supportable on all aspects until at least 11:30 today. Snow surfaces softened, and wet snow formed on most slopes on Rubicon by that time as well. Northerly aspects only had a thin layer of wet snow on top of the firm melt-freeze crust in some places. At higher elevations and on steeper, shady slopes, the snow remained firm. Ski crampons helped make travel on these slopes more secure. 

The sunny east-facing slopes had 2-4 inches of wet snow on them, depending on elevation. Below about 8500 ft, the snow in these areas started to feel mushy, like it might soon become unsupportable. We did not see or trigger any pinwheels, roller balls, or wet loose avalanches on these slopes today. Still, we saw a few signs of wet loose activity on other sunny slopes in Desolation that likely occurred several days ago.