Quick report
In the springtime, it's all about timing, avoiding slopes when it's too icy in the morning and too soft in the afternoon. On this beautiful spring day, we got lucky and timed it just right. Despite mild overnight temperatures, the clear skies provided a nice refreeze of snow surfaces. But those quickly warmed up on sunny slopes, with the top 4-5cm softening and providing nice corn skiing. There were some areas where the snowpack was punchier. I found the wet snow quite stubborn to trigger, but in very steep terrain, you may have been able to push enough of the wet surface snow to trigger a small wet-loose avalanche.
Lower elevations are melting out quickly, and every time I'm up at Stevens, they look a bit worse. Above 4500ft, coverage is much better, especially on more northerly slopes.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
It was a classic spring day. Temperatures were mild, and skies were mostly clear, with just a few high clouds hanging around. Light to moderate winds made it feel cooler than the actual temperatures.
Snowpack
Snow surfaces
Snow surfaces were still firm in shady areas and under the tree canopy. On sunny terrain, surfaces had softened by midday. Most areas were supportable to boots and skis, but occasionally you'd find a soft spot and sink deeper. On average, boot penetration was 10-20cm, and ski penetration was just 2-5cm.
Snowpack Summary
The snowpack is well on its way to a uniform spring snowpack, but I wouldn't say it's quite there yet. Below the soft surface, snow is a 10cm thick melt-freeze crust. Beneath this crust is a thick layer of softer, moist snow with a thin melt freeze crust buried 47cm deep. The snowpack finally gets stronger (P+) down 60cm where the moist melt forms have refrozen and stayed that way.
Snowprofiles
4780ft, E aspect
HS 227cm
Notable Layers
0-4cm: moist, surface snow
4-13cm: P hard melt-freeze crust
↓49cm: P+ melt-freeze crust
↓64cm: P+ melt-freeze crust