Wet Snow on Sunny Slopes, Cold Snow on Shady Slopes

We went to Schallenberger Ridge to see wet snow on sunny slopes and to check out the buried surface hoar layer. On our way up the ridge, we moved out onto sunny S-facing slopes and found that the 1-2 inches of recent storm snow had become wet and was resting on top of an old, still-frozen crust. These slopes did hold enough wet snow to see any wet snow instabilities. 

We skinned over the ridge to the N-facing slopes, where the snow remained soft and cold. We went to a spot where I had previously seen the buried surface hoar and dug into the snow. The buried surface hoar layer presented a clear line in the snowpack. We did several tests that targeted this layer, all indicating that it has gone dormant in this area. Afterward, we went up to a known avalanche path on Schallenberger to see if the same snowpack structure existed in avalanche terrain. We did not find any signs of the surface hoar layer where we dug in starting zone of that path. 

On the descent, we stuck to the N-facing slopes sheltered from the wind and mainly found soft, consistent snow above 6500 ft. We started to experience some wet sticky snow below 6500 ft, even on the N aspects. Trebombs below that elevation had also created uneven variable snow surfaces.