Quick report
A quick afternoon trip into Commonwealth. The winter entrance is a lily-swamp now, follow the road to the PCT-trailhead instead. The luge-track is still contiguous, but going fast. Allow extra time heading both up and down -- it was firm-enough in spots this afternoon to support an actual luge. Once in the Basin, coverage is quite acceptable -- firm and crunchy in the trees, softer in the open. The upstream crossing is done; use the bridge. Crossed paths with a few folks. Sounds like higher-elevation slopes in the open have skied well, but places with debris (Cocaine Couloir, for example) aren't as nice. On 71mm skis, ski-penetration on upper-elevation aspects that don't get much sun was as much as 30cm and manky. In the trees and on sunnier slopes, snow was supportable. From the dirty snow, expected to suffer from sticky pollen, but skis and skins were clean at the end of the tour. Cloud-cover rolled in by 4pm, looking foreboding. Rain started spitting by ~5:40 pm, full-on light/moderate rain followed not long after.
Avalanche
Loose wet -- some recent, perhaps as recent as today (crossing older tracks), some older. Fresh ones were mostly D1/1+. Small pinwheels/rollers when descending, entraining the upper 10-15cm in places.