Spring Snow on Castle Peak

We toured to the south side of Castle Peak today to monitor daytime warming and snow surface conditions.  Remote sensors overnight again reported well above freezing temperatures, with some higher elevation sensors reporting high 40's for overnight lows.  With mostly clear skies overnight, radiational cooling helped to leave a partial refreeze on the snow surface in open areas.  Snow coverage on the south side of Castle Peak is shallow with lots of obstacles, but adequate for some fun recreation at this point.  Descending around 10:30am provided good spring snow conditions where smooth snow existed.  The snow was fully supportable in these areas with 2-4'' of soft snow on the surface.  There were some isolated areas where punchy wet snow existed, mostly around rocks at lower elevations.  For the most part, even with the very warm temperatures, the snowpack provided good travel conditions.