Quick report
Skied the SE bowl off the south summit of Mt. Morrison just before 11 today. Temps were above freezing in Mammoth and at the Convict Lake trailhead before sunrise this morning, but there was at least a superficial refreeze, allowing for efficient travel to the base of the face. However, once on the face, we found all of the snow to still be transitional, with thin crusts capping unfrozen, somewhat moist, but not wet snow below. Often, this acted as a trapdoor while boot packing, and occasionally, we postholed through the crust or slightly warmed surface snow into the unconsolidated snow below, up to our thighs. The best travel was on the bed surface of a previous, relatively large loose wet slide (see photos) that ran down the main gully of the face. When we descended, we found mostly rotten, semi-unsupportable snow, especially near rocks and shallow areas, with ski pen often up to 20 cm, but this was a function of the snow below the surface, as we had no signs of surface instability- not even roller balls or pinwheels, and the surface was not excessively wet. We traversed towards the skier's right side of the face, where it tilted just slightly north of east, and found much smoother and more supportable skiing, which was quite enjoyable, but it was still far from fully transitioned. The descent down the drainage was very supportable and enjoyable, especially on the west and northwest facing walls, which were very slightly softened, but travel became sticky below about 8500'. We were able to ski within 20 feet of the road, but this is melting out fast. We did also note some chilly, moderate S winds while traveling up the drainage this morning. We were concerned they may stop the softening of the snow, but these were non-existent on the face, and we didn't feel them again until the ridge, where they were in the moderate range. When they were absent, the sun felt quite warm, and the air temp was 62 degrees at the car at 11:30. The skies were clear throughout most of our tour, but occasional cloud cover was passing overhead on our exit.
Avalanche
We observed several loose wet slides off the southeast, east, and northeast facing terrain off both summits of Mt. Morrison. Most of these appeared D1 in size, but the furthest south slide had a large debris pile, with depths up to 3 feet, and some large chunks. These all appeared to be several days old, and we saw no natural activity today, and our turns did not push any snow downhill whatsoever. We also did not note any ice or rockfall.