Quick report
It felt a lot like spring out there today. The birds were singing, the temps were warm, no one was around, and the LJs stayed at home.
There was no overnight refreeze, so the snow was wet and sloppy from the get-go. In undisturbed areas, my ski penetration was 10-20cm as I made my way up toward FFF.
I spotted plenty of signs of recent wet activity - rollerballs, wet loose slides, pinwheels, and just your general chunks of snow that made deep gouges in the snowpack. I made a few of those myself as I excavated my pit and heaved blocks of snow onto the moist slope below. I also had fun pushing multiple tiny avalanches down as I descended back toward the car.
Challenging skiing at times, with plenty of wet, heavy snow, but I've skied worse.
Other access points in the area remain a challenge for those who like to travel over snow right from their car.
I was able to push moist snow on steeper slopes to create mini avalanches. A few natural avalanches were spotted that likely occurred during or shortly after the rain on Sunday/Monday.Weather
High clouds for most of the morning with partial clearing around midday when I was heading out of the field. There was a light to moderate SE wind. Temps were unseasonably warm.
Snowpack
The snowpack is thin! Everyone probably assumed that, but it was good confirmation when I suddenly hit ground while digging my pit when I wasn't intending on digging to ground.
The highlights from my time digging include the lack of a stout JDI crust. It's easy to tell where the interface is, but it certainly is not "new ground" or a bridging crust. Following up on Sam and Dallas' trips to this area in recent weeks, I was unable to identify weak snow grains at the interface. It has been wetted and mostly contains some variation of melt-form.
No significant test results in an ECT or other standardized tests.