Windy Joe Lookout / Cascade Lookout

<p>I tried snowshoeing up to Monument 83 on Sunday via the Similkameen River Trail, but ran into deep faceting snow, so I retreated to Windy Joe Lookout (the bootpack made for good traveling conditions). Yesterday I tried going up to Cascade Lookout and ran into similar conditions, but it was a lot more wet and loose due to the increase in humidity/rainfall over the previous 12 hours. Snow was extremely sloppy and waterlogged below treeline -- my snowshoe penetration was approximately 10cm-20cm per step. My boot penetration was approximately 15cm-30cm per step. I did go up a steep drainage successfully yesterday (35+ degrees), but coming down a similar drainage just an hour later proved to be a bad idea since my snowshoes were sinking in considerably (20cm+) each step I took. Snowfall started as small flakes (a shower), but became larger fractalized flakes (a proper snow shower) the further down the mountain I got. By the time I got back to the car it had transitioned to small drizzle showers. The temperature was around -1 ~ 1 degrees C. Windchill cooled things down to what felt like -2 ~ -1 degrees C.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Convex slopes, Mellow slopes, Steep slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Steep slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Snow Conditions

Heavy, Wet.

Weather Conditions

Foggy, Warm, Wet.