Wet Snow in Frazier Basin

Today we rode from the Fairy Lake parking lot to the motorized boundary above Frazier Basin. We skied both north and south-facing slopes. 

Small puddles in the parking lot had a thin layer of ice and the snowpack had a 2-3" surface crust above moist/wet snow. While riding in we saw several wet loose avalanches from yesterday on south and east-facing slopes. From the saddle, we skied dry snow on a north-facing slope to the lake below. At 10:00 AM we saw the first wet loose avalanche of the day. We saw a dozen more over the next hour. By 11:30 the upper 6" of the snowpack had become wet and no longer supportable on foot. We exited the basin up a northerly slope that had been shaded for most of the day. Riding out we saw several fresh wet loose avalanches between Pomp and Hardscrabble Peaks. The only other activity we saw was a small skier-triggered slough avalanche in steep northeast-facing terrain. 

Clouds increased by the afternoon and remained there for most of our ride out. Temperatures increased noticeably with any break in the clouds from the strong spring sun.