Warm down low, colder up high on Castle Peak.

Stark differences in wet snow vs much drier snow above and below about 8,000' in the Castle Peak area today. Warming conditions occurred today following rain on snow below 8,000' and wet snow above in this area yesterday. Below 8,000', conditions were fairly mucky with lots of tree drippings and tree bombing occurring on all aspects. A breakable surface crust was forming this afternoon as previously sunny slopes went into the shade. We did note one natural loose wet avalanche this afternoon on the SW side of Castle Peak. Details here.

Overall the snowpack appears well bonded, right side up, and supportable to travel on skis. HS ranged from a little over 1m at the trailhead (~7,300) to 1.5m in wind protected NW aspect terrain at the snowpit location at 8,800'. An 11 cm (~4 in) layer of faceted snow was noted on the ground at the snowpit location (NW aspect, 8,800'). This layer was unreactive in the CT and ECT, but did provide sudden collapse results in the DT test.

Signs of previous wind transport and wind slab formation were present from the recent S winds during the last storm. Human triggered cracking of wind slabs was very limited, occurring only in areas where the slab was previously undercut. Cornices were fairly difficult to collapse with ski kicks.