Northern Wallowas

It was a gorgeous day to be in the mountains. The temperatures in the alpine crept into the upper 20's in the shade. The sky was mostly sunny with light south winds. We observed 3-6mm surface hoar on shady and protected aspects up to 8,000'. The sun was doing its thing...especially this time of year as we near the Equinox. The trees were dripping, lower elevation south-facing slopes were getting gloppy, and steep slopes facing the sun were producing shallow and small point releases ( D 0.5) below rocky outcroppings. Good snow was holding strong on more protected and shady slopes.

At the top of South Ridge we did a belayed ski cut on a wind-loaded north aspect with no results. A quick snowpit on a NE aspect at 8000' revealed an upper snowpack with good structure - density increased with depth. There was a foot of light density snow at the surface.

We dug a quick pit on a NE aspect at 8,000' feet below South Ridge. The height of snow was 8 feet. This was definitely a fetch slope that receives significant wind-loading. Density increased with depth in the top 3 feet of the upper snowpack.