Southwest side of Scarp Ridge

The south half of the compass, through 11,900 feet, in this area, appears relatively strong, and any new avalanche problems will involve new snow or drifted snow.  As you transition to the north side of the compass, weak layers in the midpack and near the ground remain dry, potentially making it problematic for avalanches to break into older snow.  Snow surfaces on sunny slopes are slick crusts, and shady slopes often have small-grained facets near the surface.  

We toured on a few west, south, and southeast features near treeline.  West-facing terrain through about 11,800 feet showed recent meltwater draining through about half the snowpack.  The sunnier the feature, the deeper it moved, and the shadier west aspects, produced less meltwater from the recent warm weather.  In the big picture, west slopes near treeline often have dry, depth hoar at the base of the snowpack, but old, thin ice columns from earlier this winter were visible.  None of these locations were rocky and produced less water than other locations.

A profile on a southeast slope at 11,900 feet showed meltwater moved through the entire snowpack with ice lenses and ice columns present through nearly the entire snowpack and very moist facets near the ground.  Much of the snowpack looks strong, and future problems are unlikely to break beneath the current crusty surface.

A single, small northeast slope at 11,600 feet had a thin, friable crust at the surface with small, lightly faceted grains near the surface.