Decent refreeze but still transitional surface snow on E aspects.

We took a look at the transitional dry under melt-freeze snow on E aspects today and dug a pit for snowpack structure mapping on a NNW aspect. Prior to significant snow surface melt this morning, areas under forest canopy held a 0.5 to 1 inch thick breakable crust under the forest canopy. Open areas on these same slopes held supportable surface crust up to 4 inches thick. These surface crusts melted quickly today, becoming marginally supportable wet snow by 11 am. Areas with drier snow, yet to undergo melt under just an inch or two of surface wet snow had the poorest supportability at that time.

The snowpit dug on a NNW aspect at 8,510' (noted lat/long) showed a shallower than typical snowpack for this area at the current time. A well developed facet layer below the surface crust was present, similar to what has been noted at other northerly aspect locations along the Sierra Crest in both the northern and southern portions of the forecast area. Boot penetration through the crusts in the snowpack was impressively deep. Without an overlying slab of significant new snow load, this weak snow is not problematic.