Quick report
3-4 inches of new snow made for smooth surface in the morning until things heated up and stuff started to fall down. Great skiing on polar aspects above 6k in the morning. My guess is that polar aspects will hold on today (9 May) but probably will develop a surface crust by 10 May with the heat. Sluffing and wet loose prevalent throughout later in the day, especially on solar aspects. Nearly all rock faces were shedding at some point in the morning.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Rain Elevation
- 4500
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Full cloud cover in the morning up to Cascade Pass until 5AM or so. Then clouds burned off, especially east of the divide. Full sun/no clouds east of the divide in the morning. Strong wind from the east in the morning that began to die down in the afternoon.
Snowpack
Snow was quite saturated and wet up to 4.5k' on solar aspects. On north aspects the snow was cold and dry in the morning but began to wet as the day progressed. In the morning, polar aspects were chalky powder, 3-5 inches of cold snow that was well bonded. There was sluffing but the sluffing was predictable and manageable. By 12PM the snow was wetted on polar aspects even up to 7k, although the wetting was superficial, limited to the top 1-2 inches. Solar aspects were completely baked by the end of the day. Skiing out Cascade Pass by noon was deep unconsolidated mank.