Philomena

We departed top patrol at approximately 9:45 on spur catwalk and transitioned to skins at the bottom of the catwalk.  Our objective for the day was to examine snow surfaces, snowpack moisture content and existing snow coverage.  Our theme for the day was the astounding melt off the mountain has experienced in the last 48 hours.  We were abruptly faced with the melt-off situation on our traverse over to the Rustler ridge and gully where we had to walk over numerous bare patches until we reached the more protected WNW face of the Rustler gully (see photo).  Access is better from the midway catwalk.  Due to the frozen surface conditions, we ended up boot packing to the Humphrey/Agassiz saddle.  The amount of melt off on the ridgeline was remarkable.  We continued walking the mostly dry Humphreys trail to Philomena.

Conditions on the ridgeline were high winds in the 30 mph category and gusts of 10-15 mph higher.  On our way to Philomena we experienced a snow flurry.  The snowpack on the ridgeline was supportable, but lower south and west aspects were not.  At Philomena, we found a ribbon of snow consisting of a supportable wind buff surface 1F to P in hardness overlaying a layer of faceted  and melt-freeze particles.  We reached Philomena around noon.  From there we descended to Philomena and onto a supportable melt-freeze crust of 1F hardness.  From the bottom, we traversed to Allison Clay and from there to the bottom of Dutchmans. Below the 10,000 ft. level contiguous snow was difficult to find.  We exited the Humphreys trail mostly on our equipment.  Conditions on Humphreys were boot compacted snow punctuated by exposed rocks and logs.  We returned to the vehicle by approximately 2:00 PM.

The snow surface was frozen in most aspects/elevations and there were melt-freeze particles in the upper 20 cms of the snowpack.