Still transitional snow surface conditions above 9,400' on Mt. Houghton

We toured on Mt. Houghton today, specifically to assess snow surface conditions on solar aspects at and above 10,000'. On the approach climb, we noted lingering patches of previously wind drifted, transitional snow surfaces that had yet to undergo a melt cycle above 9,400' on SE-E aspects. Climbing higher above 10,000', these areas became increasingly widespread. Starting to descend at noon and sticking to the edges and centerline of gullies and maximizing true S aspect micro terrain features we were able to find decent corn snow conditions below 10,100'. From noon to 1 pm we encountered 1 to 2 inches max of surface wet snow and no indications of problematic loose wet instability.

Melt-freeze conditions and corn snow quality is significantly less developed in this upper elevation range due to a fewer number of previous melt cycles when compared to what exists on SE-S-SW aspects in the 7,500' to 9,000' elevation range.