Mostly cloudy in the morning with blue holes, then mostly sunny in the afternoon. Temps were in the mid 30s at the road and felt very warm in the sun even at upper elevations. Calm winds.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Sunburst
Toured up to Taylor pass and then up the ridge to Sunburst. At low elevations there was about 6-12″ of wet snow on the surface. Above 2500′ the snow surface only had a thin crust with dry snowpack below that. We found the buried surface hoar about 2.5′ deep but did not get concerning results in our stability tests.
Weather
Snow surface
Wet snow at low elevations about 6-12" deep. At 1500' there was a 1" thick melt freeze crust that formed overnight. Higher up the crust on the surface was very supportable with less than an inch of new snow on top.
Snowpack
We dug a pit at 3700' on a west aspect and found a very strong snowpack. There were no concerning results during our stability tests, but afterwards we pried the block off with a shovel and it cleanly fractured on a layer of buried surface hoar about 2.5' deep. The layers on either side of the surface hoar were firm (1F to P) and we did not see the BSH in the snowpit until it popped out with the shovel. Overall that layer does not seem very reactive right now, but definitely still worth keeping track of as the season progresses.
Starting at about 1500' there was a melt freeze crust on the surface in the morning.
Skier touring up to Taylor Pass with some recent wet loose avalanches on the SW face of Sunburst.
Pastoral shrouded in some mid level clouds.
Still looks very wintery in upper Lyon Creek.
Kickstep glacier and Tincan Library