Soft Spring conditions on Slide Mountain

We toured the south side of Slide Mountain to monitor the progression of spring snow conditions today.  On the morning approach, snow surface conditions were variable with crusts on most aspects with occasional pockets of previously wind drifted snow.  Warmer conditions along with lighter winds provided soft wet snow by the late morning hours on E-SE-S aspects.  The snowpack had a supportable base with 1-2'' of corn snow in melt phase on top of a supportable ice layer on south aspects down to 8200'.  East aspects were soft, but more transitional with wet snow over drier snow, yet to undergo a melt cycle.  Areas that had recent new snow would easily release very small loose wet avalanches sliding on top of a firm crust (see photo).  We finished our descent at 11:45am.  Any later may have made travel more problematic through the lower terrain where snow coverage was minimal and conditions would have become unsupportable.