Wet Snow and Melting Cornices in Johnson Canyon

I went to Johnson Canyon hoping to take advantage of last night's slight inversion. The cooler temperatures at lower elevations did allow for a slightly better refreeze, but as soon as I climbed above 7000 ft, I started sinking into ankle-deep wet snow on E and SE aspects at 9:45 am. Ski cuts on NE-E-SE facing test slopes triggered small D1 wet loose avalanches by 10:00 am. I found the most supportable snow on the ridge where the winter winds left more dense snow. I also found large cornices along the ridge. Many of these had already collapsed. Now they are melting and slumping onto the slopes below. As they pull away from the ridge, they leave large crevasse-like cracks behind. I descended on low-angle S-SW-W aspects, hoping the refreeze had not melted entirely. By the time I got down around 11:30, ankle-deep wet snow also existed on these slopes.