Broken

Light Snowfall

Southwest

Calm

There were intermittent clouds, sun and snow which was very light. I looked to get photos of the Desolation Lake Avalanche but so no evidence which it might have been on the south facing ridge I did not go along that ridge line to see if there was a more extensive collapse.There was rime on all the trees which came from the south and west as you can see from my photos. The snow was from 10 to 20 inches in depth. There was still a bottomless feel to the snow as I exited west along the ridge line. I dropped down and moved along the south slope behind Square Top. There were a number of snow layers as others have observed. The real concern was the sugar snow when I poked my ski grip through the multiple layers. I skied low angle slopes which had at least a 12 inches of new snow. There was not much wind loading only on parts of the ridge line. The ski tracks from the last two weeks had not been completely filled. I saw only two other skiers, one across from Tom's Hill on an ascent directly up and over the cornice and another skiing on the south facing slopes of Little Water Peak. There was quite a bit of facets forming on the snow surface in all areas. There was little wind damage from any of my observations. The loading was on the ridge line. The loading which usually appears south to north was more directed west to north east in nature which was somewhat unusual. I saw no avalanches or cracking in the area only cornice development along all ridges near and in the distance.