We started skinning around 6:45 AM. The temperature was 40F and there were low hanging clouds and a gusty breeze from SW-W. Due to the clouds, the sun was less intense than expected and the snow on the east facing aspects we were targeting was wind affected sun crust and not softening as quickly as anticipated. We waited on the bench above tasters choice until the snow started to soften slightly. We started our descent from South Diamond peak around 9:15 AM. The snow was still wind affected sun crust and had not started to soften from the sun just yet. For our second run, we skinned up the wave where the slope was more sheltered from the wind. We noticed much more warming in the snowpack at this point, minor glopping on our skins, and some roller balls forming on a cliff band on lookers right of the gash. The roller balls started to increase in size before gaining speed and breaking apart. This side of the gash is slightly more south facing than the rest of the lines on South Diamond. We reached the top of the gash at 10:40 AM. The first member of our party cut across the top of the gash and started a very small loose wet slide that ran ~15 feet. Given that this more southerly aspect was clearly too wet at this point, we decided to traverse to skiers left of the gash back to the main face. Here, the first member of our party set off a larger loose wet slide that ran the entirety of the line and stopped at the bench. The slide would have been large enough to knock someone off their feet and over the rock bands below, but was not large enough to bury a person. We traversed further to skiers left back to the main face. Here, the snow was significantly less wet due to a more direct east facing aspect and less protection from the cooling breeze. We skied the remainder of the line without incident. The snowpack feel and wet snow issues were incredibly variable based on slight variations in aspect, exposure to the wind, and shading from trees/ridgelines. When protected from wind and exposed to direct sunlight, the snowpack became wet and unsupportable extremely quickly.

We skied two lines off of South Diamond. The first was the main face off the peak summit and our second objective we wanted to target was the gash. Due to the loose wet slide we triggered in the gash, we traversed back to the main face.