Upper elevation surface wet snow on S aspects of Relay Peak.

With a 6 am air temperature of 36 degrees on Slide Mountain at 9,650' and a forecast for air temps in the 40s, my partner and I opted for upper elevation S to SSE aspect terrain for a morning tour on Relay Peak. On our ascent we noted calm ridgetop winds and a gradual rate of snow surface melt, much slower than what occurs under higher sun angles and more intense solar radiation in March or April. Descending from our highpoint of 9,800' at 11 am we started with less than an inch of wet surface snow over supportable crust that increased to up to 2 inches of surface wet snow over supportable crust by the time we descended to 8,800'.

It was apparent that despite the warmer start to the morning and calm winds, snow surface melt was still focused mainly on true S aspects and to a lesser degree on SE and SW aspects. On our ascent was passed along the side and over the top of an open E aspect in the 9,400' to 9,600' elevation range. On this slope, there was less than one inch of melt freeze crust on top of dry snow that had yet to undergo a melt-freeze cycle. Further evidence that any significant amounts of surface wet snow formation in this area and elevation over the past few weeks has been limited to SE-S-SW aspects.

No signs of surface wet snow instability was observed during the morning hours in the upper elevation areas we traveled.