Spring Conditions on Rubicon

Last night's refreeze remained firm and supportable on the N-NE aspects of Rubicon Peak this morning. As soon as we left the parking lot, we could see moats of exposed dirt around most of the trees on the N side. It looked like only about a foot of snow remained below ~7000 ft. As we ascended, the snowpack got deeper, and we stopped seeing as many stumps, logs, and patches of dirt. The weather was sunny, warm, and calm. From the top of Rubicon, we only saw a couple of small wet loose avalanches on sunny slopes in Desolation Wilderness. 

We left the top and traversed away from the firm N-facing aspects around the corner to sunny E-facing slopes. These had 2 to 3 inches of soft wet snow on the surface. The melt-freeze crust below this wet snow remained supportable until we left the area around noon. I stopped and dug through the crust in one sunny spot at about 8600 ft. I could push my pole 3+ ft. into deep wet snow below the melt-freeze crust. The snow coverage got thinner below 7700 ft. More rocks and patches of dirt started to appear below that elevation. On the way back to the car, we found one sunny ENE facing spot at about 7600 ft. where the snow had become unsupportable.