Observations from Mt Judah

Mt Judah's mix of shaded slopes and sunny slopes held a variety of conditions. On the way up, we ascended the N, NE, and some E-facing slopes where we found the expected mix of exposed crusts and some lingering patches of soft snow. We dug a pit to look at the snow around the rain crusts near the surface of the snowpack. We did find some weaker snow around those crusts (see snowpit). On the more exposed upper elevation slopes, we found a mix of exposed rain crusts and wind-scoured surfaces. 

We then went across the ridge to the S-facing slopes. Despite the cloud cover, enough warming had occurred for 2-3 inches of soft wet snow to form on top of a mostly supportable melt-freeze crust. This crust varied in thickness and in a couple of places it was thin enough that we broke through into the softer snow below. As of 12:30 pm when we were returning to the ridge we had not seen any signs of wet loose avalanche activity. The clouds seem to be thinning as we left.