A veritable grab bag of conditions today. What looked from afar to be good conditions was in actuality a frustrating mess of bullet-proof crust topped with just enough new snow to make it look pretty. Ski crampons? Wish I had them. The rain has created an amazingly thick and stout 2-3 inch crust. The light new snow was blown around into pockets and capped with surface hoar which made it hard to distinguish it from the similarly surfaced rain crust. The only time we didn't hear our skis scraping was on very low angle sheltered areas.

At upper elevations there was quite a bit of rime. Huge branches had snapped off under the weight.