Decent refreeze at Forestdale

We didn't leave Red Lake parking until around 8am, but still found the trail to be firm enough to require several stops to let snowmobiles cool down. First snowboard lap in Forestdale AKA Cole Bowl AKA Boarder Bowl was around 9am on an E aspect, and not quite corn yet. While waiting for things to soften, we rode down to the edge of Forestdale Meadow at 7600ft. There was still plenty of snow all the way down, though big holes are opening up and snow bridges over stream crossings are becoming suspect. We returned to NE/E aspects between 8000 and 9200ft, and conditions were ideal for snowboarding until around 11am. Ideal conditions for snowmobiling were observed between 10am and noon. Although we never saw any wet loose instabilities, snow on all elevations and aspects became wet and weak enough by noon that we decided to leave.

Pic 1: Just before 10am in Forestdale Meadow, an inch of corn over a supportable crust.

Pic 2: Lots of surface texture developing, likely soon to be sun cups.

Pic 3: Irregularities in ground cover beginning to show through the snowpack. Riding anywhere near rocks and over buried rocks revealed a much weaker snowpack than away from rocks. Even when conditions were still firm in most places, I rode over rocks buried 1-2ft from the surface and my track sunk to the rocks. One brake check on a steep slope with buried rocks resulted in a small wet loose pile that ran downhill about 100ft, but stayed within the snomo trench without fanning out. We decided to leave shorty after.

Pic 4: The same monster cornice on Deadwood Peak, as seen on 4/22, yet to drop on the slope below. Several cornices in this area have already partly failed and triggered wet loose avalanches up to D2. All evidence observed today was from prior events.