Observation: White Pine

We had a late start from the White Pine trailhead under obscured skies with above freezing temperatures and no wind. By 1pm at 8800’, a very light rain (more of a mist?) was produced from the foggy clouds in White Pine. This continued on and off for about two hours until it transitioned to a very light snow when we were at 9800’. While it was spatially variable and scattered in the drainage, there is now a thin crust on snow surfaces either from yesterday’s rime event or today’s precipitation (picture below). We had a large thundering collapse with a small shooting crack on a NE Aspect at 9500’ letting us know that the PWL is active and poor snowpack structure exists. Q1 riding is still being found on sheltered, low angle polar aspects.