Misty Moisty Morning on Silver Peak

Warm temperatures and light mist greeted us at the trailhead. As we skinned into Silver Peak the mist would come and go, but we never really got wet. The snow on the other hand was wet in most places. There was obviously no re-freeze during the night. The previous surface crust had softened with warm temps and mist in many areas. In some places, it still had enough structure to remain as a breakable crust. Our skis would sink about 3-4 inches into the wet snow. We dug a pit in a location near previous pits to track the changes occurring in the snowpack. We found wet or moist snow throughout the pack. The Dec 11 facets still existed, but they are consolidating (see pit for details). 

We continued up and it stayed warm and misty to the top of the peak. The freezing level was somewhere above our highest elevation of 8200 ft. On the way down, we ski cut some small test slopes. Our ski cuts produced small roller balls and pinwheels in the wet snow. Overall snow conditions ranged from slow, sticky wet snow to some areas where the crust was still breakable, to some faster wet snow.