Hot Pow on Jakes

 We started the day at 6600' @ 07:00, at this time the temps were already above freezing and skies were broken over the lake but cloudy at the top of Jakes. As we made our ascent, the snow below tree line was still soft and powdery on the surface; however, this would change throughout the day. Around 10:00 @ 9000' misty/rainy conditions moved in and started to effect the top 1-3 cm of the snow. This weather pattern continue throughout the day with intermittent waves of light snow fall, small frozen ice pellets and occasional rain. This produce cohesive snow on the surface that lead to roller balls and pinwheels on just about every turn during our descent. These roller balls would quickly break apart after awhile and remained small but traveled downhill for a while. As we lost elevation snow continued to get stickier and stickier. This warming of the surface could lead to a widespread frozen crust as temps freeze overnight creating a possible future bed surface. Other than that there was no visible signs of instability from ski cuts or the surrounding terrain.

Pit tests- CT and ECT tests had some results on the Dec.25 layer scoring CT23 Q1, CT21Q1, ECTN16 and PST90 End @ 45cm down 21/1/2. The Dec.11th scored PST50 End @ 80cm down 21/1/2 but was nonreactive during the CT and ECT.