Quick report
We went out to search for dry snow up high, and were pleasantly surprised to find it. Above 9000' there was dry-ish soft surface snow. This snow had been blown around into thin drifts, leaving patches of exposed melt-freeze crust on the surface. South aspects had moist surface snow to ridgetop, overlying a supportive crust.
Middle elevations were mostly moist but supportive melt forms. However, on steep southerlies and near rocks and trees, where the snowpack was holding more heat, the snow was much less supportive. Skiing was challenging, and we sank in past boot top if we took our skis off. If I were trying to trigger an avalanche, that's the sort of terrain I'd look for. We avoided travelling below cliffy areas that still held snow, and stayed away from glide cracks and cornices.
We saw a few wet loose avalanches from the past few days. In the afternoon we triggered some roller balls at middle elevations.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 37 at ridgetop
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 5
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Thin overcast clouds most of the day. Temperatures were warm in the valley, and just below freezing at ridgetop. Light to moderate winds were transporting small amounts of snow above 9000'.
Snowpack
We still found signs of a wintry snowpack above 9000'. Snow from this past week was still mostly dry on non-solar aspects and was blown into isolated lenses of thin wind slab. The snow was becoming moist, but still dry enough to be entrained by moderate winds. On sheltered south aspects at high elevation, this new snow was about 4 inches deep and moist.
At middle elevations the entire snowpack has undergone its springtime transformation into melt forms. The snow surface was moist but supportive.
At low elevations there is not much snowpack to speak of.
Avalanche
We saw several old wet loose and wet slab avalanches from about a week ago. We saw a few wet loose avalanches from the past few days. There were also many open glide cracks.