Bishop Creek - Wet Facets And Poor Coverage Below Treeline

The only snow below 9500 feet is on slopes facing due north, or in gullies. Most slopes are bare at lower elevations, and the snow that exists is a homogeneous melt-freeze snowpack. I hiked in running shoes below 9500 ft. on both ends of my day.

I looked into the snowpack between 9500 and 11,000 feet 3 times:

• North, 9500 ft., 9:15 am: supportable melt-freeze crust over wet melt forms. Snow depth: 65 cm.
• East, 10,500 ft. 10:15 am: mostly supportable crust over wet melt-froms. Snow depth 30 cm.
• North-northeast, 11,000 ft. 10:30 am: wet surface, 1 finger hard slab, then wet facets buried 2/10. Propagating snowpack test results in the 2/10 facets.

I turned around at 11 am, and almost all of the slopes that had supportable snow a few hours ago were not so supportable. I sank into my boot top or my knee on my skis several times.