Bijoux in the Rain

It was warm and wet in Bijoux today with rain up to treeline at 1600 m. We didn’t see any new avalanches, but we didn’t see much of anything with whiteout conditions and rain drops on our goggles. The winds were strong out of the southwest, but weren’t managing to blow any of the wet snow around at treeline. The top 5-10 cm were slushy with up to 50 cm of moist snow underneath which rode like mashed potatoes. We didn’t wander far from the beaten path, but what little tree riding we did was ok. At least until you hit an invisible wind lip. We dug down to the crust from Mid December and got variable, stubborn results. We think this layer is healing in the warm temperatures, but still don’t trust it in areas where large triggers could still affect it.