Warm Wet Snow and Firm Frozen Snow on Silver Peak

North aspects remained firm and frozen as we skinned into Silver Peak this morning. They held a mix of smooth firm surfaces, uneven wind-scoured firm surfaces, and some areas of thin breakable melt-freeze crusts with colder snow below them. Some wet snow had started to form on the more ENE aspects exposed to morning sun. E aspects also held wet snow on a supportable crust below 8000 ft. The E aspects above about 8000 ft on Silver Peak had not fully transitioned to spring melt-freeze conditions. They still held uneven wind-scoured surfaces and raised tracks. Near the summit of Silver Peak, some chalky colder snow still lingered.

On the sunny southerly aspects (SE-S) that have experienced more intense melt-freeze cycles, spring melt-freeze conditions existed. The surfaces were firm in the early morning, but by 10:00 am 1-2 inches of soft wet corn snow had formed in the surface. By 11:30 the wet snow was closer to 2-4 inches deep. We started seeing some small roller balls around that time and the snow started to become less supportable.