Warm temperatures on Luther Pass

     Toured up the eastside of Luther pass to investigate the corn development on solar aspects. Upon arrival skies where broken with high cirrus clouds in the morning with developing cumulus clouds by the afternoon. Ambient air temperatures where well above freezing by 1000 am and active melting was occurring. On the ascent, the surface snow was already starting to soften and loosen up on any solar aspect, some shaded areas remained slightly firm. Below the surface snow was a 4" melt freeze crust that has wet snow below it, this melt freeze crust was still supportable. As we progressed up hill passing cloud cover was intermittent and at times for long durations of time (up to 20-30 minutes), preventing maximum solar penetration on solar aspects. We topped out at 9000' and conditions were soft on all aspects at this elevation, the melt freeze cycle at this upper elevation has begun in this area. There was a light SW breeze that was pretty consistent throughout our tour that kept us cool more than anything else. While walking around at the top of our climb I noticed that rock moats are starting to open up, I was easily able to step in one up to my thighs. With forecasted warm temperatures next week these moats are going to present themselves more and more, especially with the high tide year. We rode down a S-SW slope around 1300 and conditions were a couple inches of corn snow that did not show signs of instability even on steeper slopes, no real rollerball development built up as snow would form then brake apart as it rolled down the slope. No ther indications of instability presented itself through our tour.