Rubicon Peak snow conditions

4-6" of light, unconsolidated snow from Saturday night sat on top of several feet recent storm snow. Some moderate density changes in the Thursday-Saturday storm layers, but generally a "rightsideup" snowpack. We did not dig a proper pit, but hand pits down to 2 feet, stomping, and ski cuts showed no obvious signs of instability. We chose to ski lower angle terrain due to the advisory and recent avalanches on the deep faceted layer, although we were not able to trigger any cracks or collapsing. 4-8" settlement cones visible on trees on north aspects. East aspects had developed a firm 1" sun crust by mid-day.

Looking S/W from Rubicon Peak into Desolation Wilderness, several large slab avalanches (D3+) were visible in complex, convex, near treeline terrain on East and NE aspects. They appeared to be naturally occuring (no visible ski or snowboard tracks), with 4-8 foot crowns, and one was several hundred feet wide. From a distance these avalanches appeared to match the deep slab problem reported in the advisory.