Mt. Houghton

Getting to and from areas with continuous snow cover becomes more challenging as more snow melts with each passing day. Two days ago, observers reported that they could access Houghton on snow from the car. Enough snow melted over the last two days that we had to walk several sections today on S- and W-facing slopes below 9000 ft. Once we got above 9000 ft, the SE-S-SW aspects remained mostly bare, but coverage improved on other aspects. SE- and S-facing gullies on Houghton that had enough snow to travel in last week are now mostly dirt.

As for the snow conditions, last night's refreeze proved decent, and we had mostly supportable conditions on the sunny slopes until our departure at 12:30 pm. A few inches of soft, wet snow formed on these sunny slopes, providing good travel conditions without signs of imminent instability in the wet snow. Open, upper elevation, N-facing slopes remained firm and bumpy until that time.