Castle Peak Observations

We toured into Castle Peak today looking for softening snow with the sunny skies and warming temperatures.  Most snow surfaces were firm to very firm on our way to Castle Pass and up the south ridge towards Castle Peak.  Unfortunately, snow coverage on SE/S aspects is very thin with most areas now becoming unusable.  We did find an area off the ridge at 8200' where enough usable snow was present to descend at 11am on a SE aspect.  Good spring snow quality existed, but many obstacles like rocks,dirt, previous refrozen tracks, and bushes were exposed and had to be avoided.  These SE and E aspects were the few areas that we observed that were softening, with all other aspects remaining firm.  Cloud cover and SW winds started to increase just before noon and may have prevented further snow softening into the afternoon.