Tilly Jane

This far eastern side of the mountain is largely melted out below 5500 ft. Above this, the snowpack remains lean, but there's just enough snow to skin/ski from the cabin and beyond. As I continued, I found about 3-4 inches of new snow resting over the boot/ski supportable 3/25 crust. I found a mixed bag of surfaces as I climbed into the upper elevations along the Cooper Spur moraine. The crust was often scoured and exposed, and broken up by ribbons of drifted snow. Wind slabs were generally stubborn and easy to pinpoint due to their smoother-textured appearence, in contrast to the dusty, scoured surfaces that existed in this area.  I transitioned before I needed ski crampons, but they would have been necessary if I had climbed beyond 6700 ft. 

Instability was confined to isolated wind difted features.

The lower and mid-elevation snowpack has receded significantly on this far eastern side of the mountain. So much so that I started in trail runners and stayed in this mode of travel until I hit the cabin. Just beyond the Tilly Jane cabin, I started skinning and found progressively more snow as I climbed. By 6300 ft, I was finding HS's ranging from 160-200 cm near-treeline.

The 3/25 crust is stout! I found this boot/ski supportable, knife hard crust to be 15 cm thick in the location I dug on a NE aspect @ 6300 ft. Below this thick crust is a softer layer of unconcerning melt-forms. Once I crested into the exposed areas on the moraine, ribbons of drifted snow became less promient and this icy surface became the more widespread surface.