Becker Peak

Cold temps and east winds kept many slopes from warming up much today. A shallow layer of soft wet snow did form on the sunny south-facing slopes of Becker Peak, since they receive the most sun. This spring-like snow made for good travel conditions where it existed. Unfortunately, the same exposure to warming that made the soft snow also makes for good melting. Those sunny south-facing slopes have melted significantly, leaving only patchy snow coverage. We ended up picking our way through rocky areas and taking our skis off to walk down large areas of dirt between the small patches of snow. Overall, I would say we spent 25-30% of our descent walking with our skis on our backs. The north aspects remain fully covered with snow, but those slopes stayed frozen all day. Rain runnels and other bumpy surfaces still exist on those aspects as well. We did not see any signs of current instability today.