Waterhouse

I went to Waterhouse in search of what recent high temperatures and small amounts of rain had done to the snowpack on protected north slopes. I had been to Waterhouse on Saturday with good light powder conditions and to Powderhouse on Sunday with very slow and thick conditions. Today, with the overnight freeze, I found surface crust on the north slopes all the way up to the peak. This surface crust varied between 2 and 4 cm, with some areas having a lighter and thinner crust. Along the way, I took some snow depth measurements and found between 140 and 205 cm of snow between 8000 and 9400 feet, with the highest measurements at 9400 feet. On the descent, I skied light breakable crust all the way down to 8200 feet. Most of the time, the crust was not too bad as long as I kept my weight forward. Every once in a while, the crust was grabby -- enough that jump turns were useful. I shopped aspects, and all the north aspects consistently held breakable crust . I swung out on to an East aspect and there, the snow had warmed enough to be soft snow or breaking-down-breakable crust. Below 8200 feet, the snow was mostly soft except where previous tracks existed. 

When I arrived at 11, it was clear that the slopes had a good overnight freeze. On the way up, there was a breakable melt-freeze crust of various thickness with the thickest above 8600 of 4 cm. However, above 9000 feet, crust was only 2 cm thick. On the descent at about 2 pm, below 8200, the crust had melted, and there was just wet snow. Taking some HS measurements today, I found: At 8000 feet, HS 142 cm with crusts at 40, 90, and 139 cm. At 8500 feet, HS 142 cm with crusts at 40, 66, 85, 128 cm; ski pen 4 cm, boot pen 12 cm. At 9000 feet HS 194 with crusts at 4, 62, 96 cm; ski pen 2 cm, boot pen 8 cm. At 9400 feet, just below the summit, HS 205 cm with crusts at 0-1 cm, 38, 130, 137 cm. The snowpack is not thin on the north side of Waterhouse.