Waterhouse

A solid refreeze occurred on Grass Lake last night, in contrast to the previous overnight which had resulted in a partial refreeze. Once in the trees, there was a mix of breakable melt freeze crust and some unconsolidated snow -- most of which was only on strictly N aspects. The melt freeze crust was thin -- at most 1 cm -- and breakable. The skin track was pretty slippery; not exactly icy but very hard, previously melted, and refrozen. Wind effects on the ridge were minimal. Descent conditions were somewhat variable. It consisted of about half light breakable crust -- in every area hit by the sun previously -- or unconsolidated light powder snow. 

Snowpack on these aspects was fairly consistent. Most of the time, there was a thin 1 cm breakable melt freeze crust, underneath which was unconsolidated F hard snow about 30 cm in depth (the new snow from last week), underneath which was 4f hard snow with varying depths. At 8000 ft, HS 120 cm; 8500 ft, HS 174 cm; 9000 ft, HS 218 cm; 9400 ft, HS 265 cm. All measurements on NE aspect.