Smoky Dome and N Smoky Dome

This was an off duty tour to enjoy some southern sun and to check in with the snowpack in the Soldiers. No formal observations, just moving through large amounts of terrain and looking and feeling. 

I traveled through large amounts of untraveled terrain and did not experience any cracking or collapsing.

I departed the Soldier parking lot at 1045. Wet snow problem never turned on in the terrain I traveled through in any sort of widespread way. I pushed on some steep S and SE in the heat of the day and did not come close to producing wet loose slides. I comfortably skied a large, not terribly steep S aspect off the top of Smoky Dome in the mid afternoon, avoiding being on/under the steepest portion of the slope. Surface conditions were a bit wet and sloppy, but completely supportable and skiable 

Ski pen on sun-soaked solars was 10-12cm. I was able to step out of my skis on mid and upper elevation solars during the heat of the day and was not punching through, boot pen was roughly 20-25cm max. At one point I had a break next to a large whitebark that was putting a bunch of extra radiation into the snow, but even here snow was boot supportable. Icy crusts buried in the snowpack remained sensibly icy on steep solars through the day. 

S and SW slopes at lower elevations are dry up to ~6,500-7,000', except for some large, densely packed wind strips.

Surfaces are generally quite rough, which should help incoming snow bond. Most concerning surfaces were upper elevation shadies where significant faceting has occurred, on direct steep solars where the crusts may be fairly icy once refrozen, and on solar margins where breakable MFcr+FCsf combos may exist. None of these looked terrible.