Melting snow and falling ice off the rocks above and surrounding the glacier.
Observation:
Location: Lane Glacier
Started at the monolith, traversed the boulder field, up to the Lane Glacier
Observer Comments
Weather
Started the morning overcast, low clouds, opening up into a few sucker holes until the afternoon when the clouds moved to a high ceiling providing great visibility. Very light wind in the early afternoon.
Snow surface
New snow in the valley was slushy (melted out by the afternoon), turning to a heavy semi wet snow, great for snowman building, at the boulder field and at the base of the glacier, heavy drier snow at the top, ice crust near rocks and boulders, small round surface snow at mid and upper glacier.
Snowpack
Couple hand pits and pole probing.
Snow depth varied but averaged around 2 feet.
A layer about 7 inches down of round, round snow separated the older snow and the recent snow from the weekend. Layer broke clean in the hand pit .
Did not do a formal pit.