Weak refreeze on Rubicon Peak.

We went to Rubicon Peak this morning to gauge last night's snow surface refreeze and today's melt rates. Last night after cloud cover cleared out around 2 am, a weak refreeze of the top 2 inches of the snowpack occurred during above freezing air temperatures and clear skies. This refreeze proved supportable for travel on skis until about mid morning. N and NE aspects were supportable during our approach prior to 10:30 am. At 10:30 am E aspects near the summit (~8,800') were barely still supportable. While descending, we encountered unsupportable conditions a few minutes later at around 7,900'. Traversing over to NE and N aspects, conditions remained unsupportable at this elevation and below as all remains of last night's refreeze had melted away. We carefully exited the area utilizing non-avalanche terrain.

Looking out into the Desolation Wilderness, we saw a total of 3 glide cracks. One was new in the past few days and another had melted and opened wider in the last few days.