Broken skies around noon and then starting to clear up near 2 pm, giving way to sunshine. Widespread valley fog/clouds near 2000' throughout the day.
Mostly light southeasterly to southerly wind, but picked up near the ridge-top (around 1-2pm), enough to lightly transport the new snow.
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Hunter Pass
Standard route up Hunter Pass and onto shoulder towards North Bowl. Skied a few laps on WNW and NW aspects.
Weather
Snow surface
Only about 1 inch of new snow on top of a hard crust near the TH. The new snow gradually deepened and the crust got thinner with elevation.
In the alpine the snow was slightly affected by wind but remained soft. A recent skin-track nearly completely filled in with drifted snow. Our previous tracks did too, but to a lesser extent. Good ski quality.
Snowpack
At 3300' on a WSW aspect (snow depth = 14.5in), we dug a little hand pit, which revealed a thin, <0.5cm crust, 4 inches below the surface, with facets developing 1 inch above the crust and 2 inches below as well. The rest of the snow below was made up of rounds and was moist at the ground interface. This quick hand pit failed with hard force at the ground interface.
Broken skies around 1pm, the clear sky moving in from the south
Wind-pressed powder filling in the skin track
Handpit, With a facet/crust/facet combo to keep track of as the season continues
Persistent valley fog (and sunshine!)