Caples Lake Observation

Just a trace of new snow (mostly graupel) greeted me at Caples Lake today. While temperatures were in the 20s, the sky was nearly cloudless around 9:30am. Skiing conditions were not very pleasant with very firm conditions on most slopes with small patches of soft near surface facets found occasionally. Under the trees there are many limbs and needles on the snow surface. 

I dug a pit on a NE (48°) slope at 8000 ft in an open area below tree line. The melt freeze crust here was knife hard and about 8 cms thick. There was an obvious frozen preferential flow column running through the weak facets. Underneath the crust was 5 cms of loose facets. The snow below the facets quickly transitioned to 1 finger hard. 

After contouring around the slope, I dug another pit on a N (5°) aspect at 7800 feet in another below tree line clearing. The snow here was notably weaker. There was no crust present at the surface, just 3 cms of near surface facets over a very thin breakable crust. Below the crust was 10 cms of weak (fist hard) near surface facets. Below these NSFs was about 5 cms of 4 finger hard snow with 1 finger hard snow below that. 
 

Photo 1: A trace of fresh graupel was on the snow surface. 

Photo 2: About 5cms of facets under a stout crust on a NE aspect. 

Photo 3: About 10cms of weak facets under a very thin crust on a N aspect. 

Photo 4: Looking at the mostly bare S face of Peak 9452

Photo 5: Still very rough surface conditions on exposed SE aspects