Wet Warm Snow and Cold Dry Snow in the Incline Lake Peak Area

We went to Incline Lake Peak to look for wet snow on sunny slopes and monitor the buried facets on northerly aspects. In the morning, We found cold, dry snow on shady N-facing slopes and frozen sun crusts on the sunny slopes as we climbed to our high point. Some cornices also existed along the ridge. These were in the sun and broke when I kicked them. The cornices pieces did not produce any cracking or other signs of instability when they hit the slopes below them. We also found wind-scoured slopes on the NE aspects near the ridge. 

Once we moved downslope into more shaded and sheltered areas, we could feel the old facets below the recent snow. We had not seen any signs of instability associated with these facets. We stopped and dug into the snow to take a closer look at them. Our snowpit tests did not yield any unstable results.

As we climbed back up to the ridge, we noticed the snow getting wet and sticky in sunny areas, including low-angle NE-N-NW aspects. When we got back to the ridge around noon, the previously frozen crusts on the SE aspects had melted. We could also easily trigger pinwheels 2 ft in diameter by rolling small snowballs down the hill. Several roller balls of wet snow had released on an ESE aspect near some rocks while we were on N aspects. 

We avoided steep, open, sunny slopes on the way out since we were already seeing signs of wet snow instabilities. We stuck to shady slopes and or low-angle sunny slopes. Sticky wet snow existed anywhere the sun had touched, and cold dry snow still lingered on shady N-facing slopes.