Observations from Round Valley

Clouds cleared around 8:30am and sunny areas were warmer than anticipated in the Castle Peak area today. Upper rock towers on Castle Peak were partially rimed. Three to six inches of new snow was found, with the higher amounts at upper elevations. At lower elevations we found less new snow and a hard but breakable rain crust. Under this crust soft snow remained. On shady aspects above 8400 feet the interface between the old snow and new snow was soft. Lower angle terrain between 8200 and 9000 feet was enjoyable powder skiing. 

Photo 1: New small cornice broke easily under a ski kick. Snow below was unconsolidated. 

Photo 2: Wind blown snow texture on NW side of ridge to Castle. The windward side of north - south ridges was largely stripped of new snow.

Photo 3: On a few steeper switchbacks cracks propagated, but we observed no other signs of slab presence in this area today.