We set our sights on the Jewel, mindful of early season conditions and potential new loading on facets or surface hoar. Our tour took us from the Switchback Trailhead up the road, through Camp Misery, and up protected terrain to to the microwave shack atop Radio Ridge.
En route, a hand shear indicated around 12cm of graupel buried just under a few cm of new snow.
Winds were screaming over the ridgetops all day, with visible transport into the areas above Crown Bowl and consistent movement in the trees atop the Checkerboard. Several travel tests had unremarkable results, though the wind kept us on the west side of the major ridge. Lower, sheltered sections of Crown Bowl were not reactive or wind affected.
All in all, we didn't see anything even close to predicted accumulations and aside from wind, the weather proved to be fairly mild.
We did observe some very minor point release slough in the upper couloirs of Crown Bowl, likely caused by solar.
