Castle Peak

A variety of snow conditions existed on Castle Peak today. Cold, soft snow lingered on shady slopes sheltered from the winds, especially on NW-N-NE aspects. Recent winds had left firm and uneven snow surfaces behind on more exposed northerly aspects and ridges. 

Wet snow and melting crusts existed on sunny slopes, and we triggered small wet snow sluffs on some test slopes. Sunny S-SW aspects where the winds had scoured snow back to firm surfaces held a few inches of wet snow on top of more firm surfaces. Overall, the snow conditions are between cold, dry snow and wet, melt-freeze snow. The snow will take more melt-freeze cycles to transition to "corn" snow. 

Ski kicks on steep, sunny SE and SW-facing test slopes triggered shallow sluffs of wet, loose snow. We also triggered some some pinwheels up to 3 ft in diameter.