Beadnell after the rains

Headed up to elevation today to have a boo at the hand dealt by our latest atmospheric river. We first found punchy wet isothermal snow below treeline but then encountered a new surface crust by 600m. The crust thickness ranged from 1-4 cm, thickest at about 1100m. At our 1650 m high point we found 1 cm of moist new snow on the surface, with two more crusts down 15 and 50 cm. The upper of these was deteriorating with the warm temperatures and the lower marked the bottom of our moist snow, with dry, very firm old storm snow below it. Snowpack tests today seemed a bit of an exercise in futility, with any loading of the snowpack causing grains to pack together tightly like concrete. All told, riding and skiing conditions were not actually too terrible once daytime warming softened up the surface to allow some purchase while edging.