Observation: Chugach State Park

~40F most of the day, scattered clouds with patches of blue skies, no wind, no precipitation

At the trailhead- there was a light dusting of new snow on top of a harder wind layer. When we got up near the ridge at higher elevations (over 3,500 feet) the sun had softened up the breakable crust and it skied nicer than expected.

Underneath that layer at different points of the ski descent, the snow was punchy, windboard, and other variable wind-related snow quality conditions. The bottom of the run was soft, malleable, and on the brink of corn snow.

We are still looking at a wind-scouted landscape- lots of bare ground.

The snowpack structure was a thin layer of decomposing wind-affected snow on top of a ~13" wind slab. Beneath the wind slab were a series of rounding facets with depth hoar observed at the base of the snowpack. We were able to get ECTP29 on the layer of facets ~13" down directly beneath the wind slab. The snowpack contained a lot of moisture and was showing signs of rounding. Moving forward, it is the time of year to start tracking surface conditions on southerly slopes as warm temperatures and solar radiation may start to form melt-freeze crusts.