Quick report
My partner and I were frothing to go tube surfing but instead settled to go observe the forecasted wet loose problem and the thickness of the ice crust formed overnight in various terrain features. We knew that a 3/4cm thick ice crust was observed at Hermit Lake (thanks Emylee!) and had low expectations for our day. We started up the GoS ski trail around 10AM. The trail is a fairly filled-in and covered highway at either end, with some heinous boulder fields in the middle. We continued to observe ice pellets, which increased in rate until about 11AM/3400'. Then, precipitation became much wetter and a warm breeze set in for the rest of the day. On our way up the ski trail, we found no evidence of rapid warming or a significant wet loose problem. Snow at the base of trees was still loose and fluffy, but anything exposed and not tracked by skiers had a thin crust. Upon reaching the base of Main Gully, we made the decision to climb halfway up to further assess the ice crust and snow underneath. Starting at the floor of the gully, we observed a ~1cm thick layer of clear ice that fully encased lighter FH snow underneath. This crust took some force to break with a pole, but boot penetration was about 20cm/shin height. The crust only increased in thickness as we ascended and we skied down very unathetically after making the decision to turn around. The crust in this zone sheltered the lighter snow underneath from absorbing moisture throughout the morning. After skiing in GoS, we took the Graham Trail over to Hermit Lake at around 1pm. The Graham Trail is actually in great shape except for the 2-3 very large blowdowns at the GoS end that have lived rent free in my head for the entire season. At this point, it had become much warmer and we observed heavy snow falling off trees and the loose, dry snow without a crust in sheltered areas becoming very wet and gloppy. We ascended Hillman's to the Christmas Tree after noting the amount of ski traffic from the prior day that had broken up the snow surface and prevented a punchy crust from forming. While chunky, this terrain was much more skiable and lacked the thick crust found in Main Gully. Snow under the lighter crust on either side of HH was still fairly light and had not yet begun to settle or absorb much moisture. The runout of HH provided the best turns of the day, and the upper half of the Sherb skied great. The bottom half was a frozen hellscape but is still skiable to the car. Overall, our observations did not align with the forecasted avalanche problem for the day. Throughout our tour, we found no evidence of a current avalanche problem but instead faced a variety of skiing/mountaineering hazards posed by crusts of different thickness. The crust locked in any available snow, and the very small amounts of snow protected below treeline were not able to be moved by light winds. We wondered if the relative shelter of GoS had allowed the thicker ice crust to form, rather than the more typical melt crust observed on similar aspects in HH and below treeline. The thickness of this crust and the fact that it still exists in most unskied terrain leaves us hoping that forecasted rain events this week will either un off the surface or percolate through the entire snowpack, rather than lead to rapid melting.