Calm clear day on Red Lake peak.

     We got an early start anticipating a very hot day with a potential small window of good snow of solar aspects. We arrived at the trailhead around 0815 this morning and there was a clear inversion in Hope Valley as air temperatures were well below freezing. On the ascent snow below tree line was still pretty hard, even on solar aspects. We observed the first softening of snow on a direct S facing aspect around 7800' @ 0900. Otherwise the ascent was patches of firm wind packed snow, soft near surface facets and hard melt freeze crusts. Along the way up I probed in a few areas and found anywhere from 75-150cm of snow from 8000-9000' on North aspects. As we reached Crater Lake one could really see the wind affected snow on the NE-N facing slopes near and above tree line from the last wind event on 1-21. As we continued up above 9000' and getting on solar aspects the snow was not warming as fast as our crew thought it would. Boot pen @ 1100 @ 9500' was only around 3-5cms and the low sun was already seeming to turn the corner. We opted to ride down around noon when snow had reached its softest point. The ride down was more enjoyable then expected, conditions were a mix of supportable chalky snow on the top that continued to soften up on the way down. We still need to be specific and stay on S facing slopes to find the wet warm snow. At best turns would produce small roller balls but nothing to build a sort of momentum or strength. Besides this little movement of wet snow, no other signs of instability were observed.