Poor Coverage and Variable Snow on Mt. Judah

We went to Mt. Judah to investigate snow coverage and monitor the changing snowpack. The snow surface was highly variable in this area and ranged from soft and sugary in a few sheltered areas to firm and wind packed on exposed slopes. The coverage also remains poor in this area. It will take a few feet of new snow to cover many of the rocks still poking out of the snow in this area. We picked our way up through the rocks into a more sheltered N-facing slope about 2/3rd of the way up Judah. Here we found soft sugary snow and slightly better coverage. The faceting in this area has not progressed as much as it has on some of the higher elevation peaks in the forecast area, but the snowpack is still weak and likely would not handle a new load very well. When we reached the summit, we found wind-hammered snow and more exposed rocks on the upper-east face.

We descended slowly, following our ascent route in an attempt to avoid the rocks.