Yesterday's slush, today's crust.

Recent warm temperatures from the last few days had reached up to ridge top on Proserpine. There was a new crust 1-3 cm thick on all aspects up to 1950 m. Luckily, this crust was breakable and underneath was dry snow that still rode like powder in sheltered and untracked areas. It would probably be quite noticeable on skis, but not bad for the sleds. This thin crust was also preventing any new snow transport from the strong westerly winds. We saw lots of signs of previous instability in the warm weather like wet sluffs and roller balls, but nothing that appeared to be from today. We worked slowly from small, sheltered terrain into bigger slopes as we verified conditions and gained confidence in the snowpack. The Proserpine access is still being plowed by industry, so we took the Groundhog access and looped around to find nice snow.