0410 wx. at 6350′ in Carnelian Bay: 31.8° / 17.4° dew point / 54% RH

0515 wx. at 8400′ Mt. Rose backcountry TH: 31° / mostly clear skies / light SW winds with moderate gusts

0630 wx. at 9500′: 28.7° / -11.8° dew point / 16.8% RH / clear skies / SW winds at 8 mph, gusting to 14 mph.

Backcountry obs.:

Hard. Scratchy. Slippy. Loud. Hateful. Any of the aforementioned adjectives can be used alone or together to accurately describe both the skin up and descent conditions currently found in the backcountry. Cold snow that persisted in the higher elevations over the weekend is largely gone, cooked into melt/freeze surfaces across the majority of elevations and aspects.

Stout, supportable melt-freeze surfaces exist on E-S-NW aspects at all elevations. In sheltered N and NE zones below treeline, a 1/4 to 1/2″ non-supportable crust tops remnant soft snow. The breakable crust offers a slight reprieve from edge slipping and backsliding now common in skintracks. Minimize misery; bring ski crampons.

Heavy usage from the past two weekends, especially during warm periods, has left the snowpack tracked and rutted in popular zones, providing rough, chattery dawn descents.

Warm temps. continuing throughout the workweek should quickly soften snow surfaces each morning, providing buttery corn turns if timed just right in the late morning/early afternoon.

Weather and forecast thoughts:

Well-above average, spring-like temps will continue throughout the work week under mostly clear skies. Highs through Fri (2/28) will reach the middle to upper 40s above 7000′, with lows dipping to near or just below freezing each night. A generally dry airmass will also aid in nightly surface refreezes through evaporational cooling.

While cold mornings make for hard, leg-pounding dawn patrol laps, this spring pattern does create prime conditions for an early season corn harvest for those that can time the snow just right.

Looking ahead, winter is plotting a return around the beginning of March. Forecast ensembles show a return to a colder, more active pattern starting this coming weekend (3/1-3/2). A modest system could begin impacting the area by late Sat (3/1), bringing good chances for snow showers and light accumulations into Sun and possibly Mon (3/2-3/3). Temps will cool with the new pattern, bringing snow levels below 7000′. Precip. amounts look light and variable at this time, but a surface refresh from the first system isn’t out of the question.

Looking ahead to later in the week, there are hints for increasingly impactful systems with the potential to drop more significant amounts of snow. Additionally, the upper level flow appears to continue steering storms into the Sierra into the second week of the month.