Tronsen Ridge

There is still some skiing to be had at Blewett, but it does take more of an adventurous spirit to get to. Timing is important for the skiing to be ripe corn; before 1 pm today was definitely too early for northerly aspects. Small holes around buried trees have begun to pop up, so careful navigation is recommended. A small amount of moisture still lingers within the snowpack, but I observed no signs of instability during my tour.

Previous warming has impacted this area to a great extent. Cornices were significantly cut back, and you could see evidence that cornice chunks had fallen and gouged into the snow as they rolled down. All of this likely happened back around the end of march atmospheric river event.

In the morning, surfaces at lower elevations were hard and crusted over. By the afternoon, they had softened in the sun to the point that you would punch all the way through as you walked/skied along. There isn't much snow left at lower elevations on all aspects, though, so I wasn't particularly concerned by this. Shadier spots held onto some supportability.

At middle elevations, the snow remained very hard and crusty throughout my time in the field. Crampons would have been an excellent piece of equipment to have been carrying to reach ridgeline. I dug a pit on a north aspect at 5400 feet to investigate deeper down. The depth of the snowpack at this location was 73in/187cm, and the depth of my pit was 36in/92cm. I found the surface crust to be 9in/22cm thick. Below this was some softer snow that still harbored a touch of moisture. This layer was above the end of March AR crust, which itself was very hard and thick. The rest of the way down was comprised of hard, dry rounded grains.

The snow at ridgeline that has a southerly tilt was soft and mushy when I topped out around 11am.