Warm temps and variable snow at Johnson Canyon

Temperatures warmed quickly this morning during our tour of Johnson Canyon.  Although south aspects were frozen in the morning, by 11am, steeper SE-S aspects had started to soften.  Surface melt was limited to the top 1-2" of snow which remained supportable on top of a firm crust.  
 

North and northeast aspects had the expected variable skiing ranging from wind textured surfaces, tree drippings, to soft near surface facets.  NE aspects exposed to the wind have been scoured to the rain crust 5-10 cms below the surface.  This led to challenging travel in some areas.  
 

We dug a snow pit on a north aspect to look at the layering of crusts and facets near the snow surface.  Although our snow pit tests did not reveal any current signs of instability we were curious how these layers may react if we receive any snow in the future.  A loaded PST test showed failure (25/100 end @189cms) on a layer of facets 15cms below the surface.