Very funky conditions on a tour up Silver Fork this evening, but so it goes in the always-interesting transition between winter and spring.
Skinning up Silver Spoon on an east-facing slope, we experienced several (of what felt and sounded like) collapses. The sound was more like a rainstick rather than a 'whoomph' and we were a bit stymied by what exactly the snow was doing under our feet.
We dug down into the snow and found the crusty new snow over a very wet melt-freeze layer. Our theory: the most recent snow fell on top of an unfrozen melt-freeze layer. The surface then melted during the day, and then refroze by the time we set out (4:30PM).
This was something each of us had never experienced before. Our uncertainty about what the snow was doing, paired with the our evidence of instability (collapsing), gave us enough pause and we chose the most conservative route down in low angle trees.
There was some dust on a supportable crust on the E aspect from about 9600ft down to 9000ft. From 9,000ft downward, snow quality changed drastically, and we worked our way through unsupportable crust over an unfrozen melt-freeze layer, making for very goofy turning conditions.
