Today, I was fortunate enough to enjoy the peculiar common but seemingly long-standing Wasatch tradition of not working on a weekday between 9 AM and 5 PM. Starting around 2 PM, I toured up Mill D North, hoping to partake in the same wonderful low angle pow skiing that I had enjoyed over the weekend.

Unfortunately, it was hard to find. Grappling up the traditional, made-for-Ascension, straight-up Mill D skintracks, I was surprised by how sunny and hot it was outside. It was forecast, but it was way hotter and sunnier than even just yesterday. All solar aspects were heavy spring slush (photos 1 and 2 illustrative). Southern slopes were baked off (photo 3 - more vivid in person, but see S-SE of Little Water dry, and even E aspect of Reynolds very thin). The only cold snow to be found was NNW through NNE. ENE was crusty, and uptracks were iced over in the afternoon shade. It'd be a good bet to find corn tomorrow if the sun breaks through. I think there's been enough consolidation on southern aspects to produce.

One thing I wanted to check with the warm temps was if the new snow had settled or condensed the new snow on the non-solar, PWL aspects. But on W through N through NE between 8500 and 9000 ft, the new snow was still only fist-hard and light. I got a bit of cracking on a steep NE slope with zero sun exposure - about a 1/2 ski worth of cracking while skinning - but nothing major.