Warm and Wet Snow Surfaces in Johnson Canyon

Johnson Canyon provided various snow conditions depending on the aspect and time of day. We found breakable melt-freeze crusts on solar aspects and colder soft snow on northerly aspects in the morning. By the afternoon, the warm weather had softened the crusts and made the cold snow wet.

Ski cuts after lunch triggered small roller balls on N-NW aspects. We did find some buried surface hoar on the northern aspects as well. It was much smaller than the surface hoar seen in other places and was wet by the afternoon. We also saw some wind-packed and wind-sculpted snow near the ridges as we toured around Johnson Canyon today. Overall, the only consistent thing about the snow conditions was that all the snow surfaces felt moist or wet by the afternoon.