Evidence of rain to the top of Mt. Judah (8,243').

We toured on Mt. Judah this morning to have a look at the effects of rain on snow that occurred yesterday evening and last night. Starting our ascent from 7,000' there was a breakable rain crust on the surface. This rain crust remained around K hard up to approx 7,800'. Above the elevation, it began to thin. At 8,200' there was very little sign of recent rain, with just a few mm of melt form crystals on the snow surface.

We stopped along the way at 7,850' in a N aspect opening below treeline to dig a snowpit. At this location HS was greater than 4.2 m and we were unable to probe to ground. We could feel the Dec 31 rain crust down 235 cm via probing. We saw no layers of concern in the top 1.5 m of the snowpack at this location.

Along the summit ridge, winds were moderate speed from the SW, the recent rain crust and rain wetted surface kept areas of blowing snow from occurring at this elevation. We could see only very minor and occasional amounts of blowing snow off of higher peaks to the south along the Sierra Crest.

We saw a few old crowns in the area on near treeline and above treeline NE-E aspects that receive heavy wind loading. Most of the activity appeared to be from 24 to 48 hours prior. One crown on the E face of Mt. Judah looked to have occurred within the past 24 hours (last photo). It was covered by recent storm snow, but to a much lesser extent than other crowns and debris in the area.