Frozen on the North Side and Starting to Soften on the Sunny South Side

After cold temperatures and strong winds yesterday and more cold temperatures last night, we expected to find firm and icy conditions on most slopes today. We also thought that some soft wet snow could form on the south-facing slopes at lower elevations. So we headed for Mt. Judah where we could see a variety of aspects and elevations. As expected N-NE-E aspects were frozen solid. They were also uneven and uninviting. We ended up using ski crampons for traction. As we ascended we also noticed debris all over the snow surface and blown over trees left over from the gale force NE wind event. 

At the top, we traversed across the ridge noting that the east aspects also remained firm and icy. When we go to the south-facing slopes it looked like they had enough coverage to descend. They also felt softer than all the other aspects. As we descended the south-facing slopes snow conditions improved. The bottom 2/3rds of the slope had about 1 inch of soft wet melt-freeze snow on top of a supportable base. 

We did not find any signs of instability in our tour today.