Warm day at Carson Pass

Warm day at Carson Pass, with little to no wind below treeline, and a light SE wind above. Thin, high clouds appeared to be "greenhousing" during late morning, but then cleared in the afternoon. Snow surfaces were highly variable, with most of the near surface facets that used to be above the January rain crust now irregularly redistributed by recent winds. Under the thin rain crust, up to 6 inches of fist hard facets were observed on cold slopes. Warm slopes did wet at the surface but only minimally. A few small patches of surface hoar were seen to survive into the afternoon.

Pic 1: Sums up surface conditions well, with facets blown off the rain crust and accumulating in depressions and low angle areas. Creep cracks in the rain crust, which was very thin and breakable with facets underneath. 

Pic 2: Facets under the crust. These were 1mm and fist hard. I found a few areas with slightly larger facets.

Pic 3: Wind blown facets with the shaded side growing surface hoar.

Pic 4: On the steep slopes above Round Top Lake, a glide crack about to open up. This was one of two I saw in the area, which has a lot of large granite features in the summer.