Snow conditions - June Lake area

Opening day at June Mountain ski area! Hooray! Wispy wiggly skiing in the low angle trees off J7 was the best skiing if you could avoid the down and dead. The high winds of the last few days had deposited the most snow in the bottom of the forested basins around June. Most terrain at and above tree line was either severly eroded or hardened and slabbed up at the surface by the tenacious N and S winds. Toured up to the north end of San Joaquin mountain to try to find a more protected zone but found very eroded surface conditions and a shallow pack to boot. At the deepest the snow was around 60cm and on average was 35-50cm within north facing trees at 9800ft. Snow pit was dug on a 36 degree slope at 21 degrees NNE aspect, in an area without any surface slab or crust. Stability tests showed a cohesive and stable snowpack, albeit shallow (CTN and  ECTX). The snow profile was generally uniform with 25cm of Fist Hardness snow on top of 30cm of 4Finger Hardness snow, and composed of rounded grains and clustered melt forms. Again the best skiing was in the low angle old growth trees bordering yost meadow. The steeper slopes that faced the winds were too haggard for good turns (see attached pictures).