Becker Peak

Last night's refreeze left a breakable crust on many slopes this morning. This crust softened quickly as the day warmed up. By 11:30 am, it was only a few mm thick on sunny SE aspects. We started to see some small roller balls around this time as well. A few of these aspects had small cornices and shallow areas of wind-loading from yesterday's NE winds, but we did not see any signs of lingering unstable wind slabs. 

Rather than stay on the rapidly warming sunny slopes, we crossed over the ridge onto shady N-facing slopes. We found evidence of wind scouring on the N aspects closest to the ridge. Once we descended below the wind-exposed slopes, the snow remained soft and cold on the steep N-facing slope, which didn't get much sun. As soon as we veered to a slightly more NE, NW, or flat N aspect, we found widespread breakable sun crusts on the snow surface. 

During our drive home, we saw a few small wet loose avalanches (D.5 to D1) on E-SE-S facing slopes near the road on Echo Summit and around Emerald Bay.