February 17, 2017, Paradise

Blue skies and creamy snow.  Telemetry had 5" new overnight however, hourly precip reported and physical observation revealed that to be conservative. 

Pole penetration was seemingly bottomless in places up to a meter. Phantom rain runnels visually lurked underneath, no crust whatsoever.  Seems like the rain saturated snow never had a chance to freeze from the very gradual change over to (insulating) snowfall and mild temps, still. 

Skiing over the observed 7-9" of new over a rotten snow bedsurface made for bottomless turns.  Interesting Maritime phenomenon.  Curious how long it takes to compact those rotten layers, or the trigger potential upon further loading and/or rain.