Wet Snow Near Back Wall

The snow surface was firm and supportable on all aspects when we started our tour. By 10 am some shallow wet snow had started to form on E-SE-S aspects, but the underlying melt/freeze crust remained supportable and frozen. At this time the crust measured ~15 cm (6 inches) thick. Below this crust, ~40 cm (16 inches) of loose wet snow still remained. The combination of 2 to 5 cm (1-2 inches) of soft wet snow on top of the supportable crust provided good corn conditions on smooth sunny slopes.

I stepped out of my skis regularly to see how supportable the crust was. At noon it would still support my full weight on one boot. By 12:30, I started to punch through the crust into ankle deep wet snow on S-SE-E aspects below 7000 ft. if I stepped off my skis. I decided it was time to head back before deeper wet snow became more widespread. The snow surface on the more northerly aspects remained firm and frozen into the afternoon.

Several glide cracks have started to open up in the Donner Summit area.