Wet snow, dry snow, weak snow

We went on a safari of different snow conditions at Beehive today. We toured up to the prayer flags, looked into the top of Bear Basin on southeast and northeast aspects, and then returned to Beehive through the north edge of Tyler's. We dug a pit in the starting zone of Tyler's and were a bit surprised by an ECTP11 on basal depth hoar. There were percolation columns through the upper half of the snowpack and the lower two thirds of the snowpack were moist. You could make a snowball. The depth hoar remains very weak and F+ hardness. The stout melt freeze crust was 3" thick on the southwest aspect.

Surface snow conditions varied wildly as is often the case in the spring. There was cold powder on the northern half of the compass. The crust had broken down by 11 AM on the southeast aspect and the top 3-5" were wet and rollerballs were easy to push downhill. The southwest aspect was just starting to soften as we left at 1 PM. If we continue to get good overnight freezes, we will only have to worry about wet, loose snow avalanches. Wet slab activity should be limited if there is any.