Not very consolidated, is it?

It sure doesn't seem very consolidated this year. Surface crusts on cooler days and at higher elevations but overall I'm finding a lot of very mushy snow. Others?

We've seen this forecast before although snow levels are definitely beginning to edge up:

TODAY...A CHANCE OF RAIN THIS MORNING...THEN RAIN THIS AFTERNOON.
SNOW LEVEL 6500 FEET. AFTERNOON PASS TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO
MID 50S. EAST WIND IN THE PASSES 10 TO 15 MPH.
.TONIGHT...RAIN AND SNOW. SNOW LEVEL 6000 FEET. LIGHT WIND.
.SUNDAY...CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW IN THE
MORNING...THEN RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY IN THE AFTERNOON. SNOW LEVEL
5000 FEET. AFTERNOON PASS TEMPERATURES IN THE MID 40S. LIGHT WIND
BECOMING WEST NEAR 15 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS LIKELY IN THE EVENING...THEN MOSTLY CLOUDY
WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT. SNOW LEVEL 4000 FEET. WEST
WIND IN THE PASSES NEAR 10 MPH.
.MONDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW. SNOW LEVEL
4000 FEET. AFTERNOON PASS TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MID 40S.
LIGHT WIND.
.MONDAY NIGHT...RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL 5500 FEET.
.TUESDAY...SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL 5000 FEET.
.TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY...SHOWERS LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL 4500 FEET.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL 5000 FEET.
.THURSDAY...CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL 3500 FEET.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL
4000 FEET.
.FRIDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL
4000 FEET.

As of yesterday:
Up by Colchuck it is consistantly knee deep and up to waist deep in sections. Several folks resorted to boot packing up.

Up by Colchuck it is consistantly knee deep and up to waist deep in sections.  Several folks resorted to boot packing up.

That's funny as we established the skin track up Colchuck yesterday we kept wondering, Who's crazy enough to boot pack this ? Great conditions though and even worth bootpacking.

The only real corn Ive ridden in the past few days has been Granites southern slopes

Yep! I believe some friends of mine were the boot packers. They had a splitboarder with them who was having some trouble.
I was up at Stevens earlier in the week and skiing above 4,500 was nice.

A week ago (4/24), Paul Ekman and I did a tour in the Teanaway and found very nice conditions. Our tour crossed to the north side, but even on the south side I think the corn stayed good all day. It was an unusually cold day though--temperatures in the 20s F when we left the car.

It seems like we're having a good old fashioned "mush season" where the conditions vary greatly from day to day and spring storms continue to delay consolidation. Having stuck my neck out to describe this at NSAS last fall, I'm watching with interest to see if my hand-waving generalizations hold up this year.

It seems like we're having a good old fashioned "mush season" where the conditions vary greatly from day to day and spring storms continue to delay consolidation. Having stuck my neck out to describe this at NSAS last fall, I'm watching with interest to see if my hand-waving generalizations hold up this year.

And you have a very long neck at that!

It sounds like others are finding similar conditions, not surprisingly.

I got the feeling yesterday (although it was excellent up high) that if it warms up as it looks like it will that the mushline will rise and we may see some unusually deep slop. Up to 24" of crap appeared at the base of the crust elevation (5600' where I was skiing) as soon as the crust broke down.

I guess that the cool spring, plenty of cloudy skies, and lots of late snow share the blame. I thought it was worth noting that some pretty substantial sluffs and even a few wet slabs may be lurking out there, especially up high during warmer periods where the recent snows are likely to be even less consolidated.