Quick report
Today was soggy, puddles were everywhere, and snow was melting fast. Nevertheless, even in the lower elevation band there was a surprising amount of (wet) snow.
Over-snow travel still isn't easy at this elevation, but it's not particularly easy to just drive or walk, either. This is especially the case as you start making your way to the top of the lower elevation band.
A few small rollerballs/point releases occurred naturally on steep road cut banks in the 20cm of soggy snow- all of yesterday's snowfall, over the bare ground.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Varying amounts of drizzle and rainfall occurred during our outing. Calm, but occasional light wind. Visibility was usually limited to a couple hundred meters. It was raining up to our maximum elevation of 4300', and likely higher.
Snowpack
Snow patches started appearing at just over 2500', and by 3000' there was almost six inches of snow on the road. We walked from 3200' up to 4300', where snow was 20-40cm, or 8-16 inches deep. Above 4000', there was a thin, harder old snow layer beneath the new snow layer. Otherwise, all the snow was from yesterday.
Given the current rain, all snow we encountered was very wet. Puddles were present everywhere, and the snow was runneled. There was minimal snow in thick trees, but in open areas with relatively smooth surfaces, snow cover was surprisingly sufficient.
Even though just walking was our best method of travel for the day, we started thinking that there could be better methods by the time we reached 4300', since the snow was a little deeper.