Quick report
Below 7000 ft. on shady slopes, the surface snow was very weak and "sluffed" easily. There was only about 4 inches of this weak snow, so real avalanches weren't likely.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 3.5
- Cloud Cover
- clear
Today was calm and clear. During my tour the lower elevations below 7000 ft. felt cooler than the higher terrain and comparing our two weather stations bears that out (the lower station (6390 ft.) was about 4 degrees colder than the upper (7897 ft.) at noon). The temperature at our lower station climbed above freezing by noon.
Snowpack
Below 7000 feet I observed widespread surface hoar, and most of the surface snow was very weak. The transformation to weaker snow (which is called faceting) occurs when we have cold, clear nights. It didn't create any danger today and just led to great shallow powder riding. If we were to get significant new snow on top of it, we could see avalanches as a result.
At higher elevations near the peak and along ridgelines, I didn't find as much of this weak snow, probably because the temperature was inverted, and warmer up high. I also noted that much of the snow along the North side of ridges had been stripped off by a previous wind from the Northeast.
Sunny slopes had wet, melting snow.