Observations from Dicks Peak

Toured from Bayview to Dicks Peak and out over Tallac's south bowl today. Steeper north facing slopes were largely firm. A couple lower angle shady slopes had breakable crust conditions with soft facets below the surface. Some east facing slopes held patchy soft snow that produced delightful glopping on our skins. At midday we encountered pleasant soft surface melting snow on south facing slopes off Dicks Peak. We just missed the corn window on the south bowl of Tallac and found a mix of soft snow and refrozen surface conditions there. Even on steep sunny terrain at midday we did not observe any loose wet snow instabilities.

Both my partner and I were happy to have ski crampons for a short section on the north side of Dicks Pass. 

Photo 1: Wind scoured north facing terrain.

Photo 2: Loose facets under the melt freeze surface crust.

Photo 3: Ridge top terrain hadn't softened at noon, likely due to a light wind blowing at the ridge. 

Photo 4: South facing terrain just below the ridge was soft and skied well just after noon.