Furry. Fuzzy. Su-ffortable.

Early-ish start/ end to check conditions.

• At mid-elevations, consecutive nights with no freeze have left the top 10-30 cm of snowpack wet, with some water pooling on harder, refrozen grains 15-30 cm below surface (images). Supportable on skis, with ski penetration 5-15 cm through early afternoon. Inconsistently supportable on foot. 
• The top 1.25 m or more of the snowpack consists primarily of melt-freeze grains and/ or ice lenses, though it remains layered. In 2 profiles (images, Snowpack and weather details tab) we saw no apparent failure layers. We did not find weak, collapsible snow near the ground in a full-depth profile on a windward, sunny slope. Shovel shear tests showed a few thin layers of coarse grains that seemed to be rehabilitated facets. 
• Turns and debris from our profiles produced roller balls that ran short distances but did not grow in size or entrain more snow. We avoided steep (> 35*) slopes where these may have coalesced into small sluffs.
• We saw debris from a dozen or more natural wet loose avalanches that looked to have run in the past 48-72 hours (images, avalanche tab). These ran relatively far - half path or more - but didn't gouge deeper into the snowack or entrain much snow. Most debris piles were not wide or deep enough to bury anyone except the very unlucky. 
• On our descent, we found supportable but furry/ dirty snow that made for consistent but slow turns (image).

The sustained warming doesn't seem to be producing enough melt water to overwhelm established drainages. Only the top 20-30 cm of the snowpack seems susceptible to triggered or natural wet loose slides. More water - either from intense sun or rain - might change that picture. 

Images to come.