Snowpit from Silver Lake

Warm, sunny, and calm day above Silver Lake. Uncertain of conditions for snowmobiling, we followed the normal snomo route on skis for scouting purposes. We observed decent coverage for break-in miles or for an enjoyable trail ride, but I don't think I'd take a snowmobile off-trail yet. However, the shallow snow was quite supportable to skiing, and ski pen was minimal. Informal observations showed several faceted layers in between crusts on all but the warmest slopes.

Pic 1: Sunny aspect surprisingly had enough spring-like snow for travel on skis, though it was very shallow and had lots of bare spots. Similar aspects with bushy vegetation were almost entirely melted out.

Pic 2: Previous snomo tracks, and the trail had decent coverage from hwy 88, but on skis we didn't travel far. It didn't look like anyone was verturing off-trail by much yet. Coverage in sheltered terrain was measured in a few places to be around 1.5ft, with slightly more in wind loaded areas that hadn't been stripped by previous east winds.

Snowpit: Shallow, faceted snowpack made supportable by strong crust layers. A few 4mm SH grains were observed just under the surface crust, but they were partly decomposed and the facets themselves weak enough to be concern on their own with future loading.