Relay Peak

As we pulled up to the trailhead, the truck thermometer read 50 °F. Despite the warm temperatures, open areas had a decent refreeze crust due to radiational cooling of the snowpack overnight. This refreeze was about 6 inches thick on the open E-SE-S-SW aspects and thicker on open N aspects. In tree-covered areas, little to no refreeze had occurred because the trees block the heat from radiating away from the snowpack into the night sky. When we stepped off our skis in these areas, we sank into ankle-deep mush. The approach to Relay remains relatively straightforward. Some creeks are starting to open up, and more trees and rocks are poking out in a few spots, but overall coverage remains decent on SE-E-NE-N aspects in this area. The S-facing slopes have melted significantly since last week and now mostly feature large areas of exposed dirt, with some patches of snow between the dirt areas. 

The snow on the sunny E-SE-S aspects softened quickly. 2-4 inches of soft wet snow covered these aspects by 11 am. What remained of the melt-freeze crust stayed ski-supportable through noon, but if we stepped off our skis, we began breaking through it into deeper wet snow around that time. We ski cut several steep test slopes and triggered some roller balls on them, but once the snow started showing signs of becoming unsupportable we headed out.