Spring Conditions on Mt. Judah

We started skinning up the north side of Mt Judah and found a mix of breakable crusts and mostly firm conditions. Below the surface crusts, some softer weaker snow existed. We even found a few small isolated areas where patches of soft surface snow existed. These variable conditions made travel challenging. As we neared the summit of Mt. Judah, the more exposed slopes became more firm and challenging so we moved to more sun-exposed E aspects where the sun had already started to melt the refrozen surfaces. This slightly softer wet snow made ascending easier and indicated that more sun-exposed SE and S slopes should also be getting softer. 

We continued over the top of Judah to the southerly aspects and found that soft corn snow had formed on those aspects by 10:30 am. Between 10:30 and 11:30, the wet surface snow was about 2-5 cm (1-2 inches) deep. This wet snow existed on top of the thick supportable melt-freeze layer in most places. We did notice some areas of more unsupportable snow near rocks that had recently melted out of the snowpack. We did not see any signs of loose wet snow instabilities. As we departed the area around noon, we noticed the west winds start to increase and some afternoon clouds starting to move into the area.