Small pocket on east aspect at 9600 feet.

First photo, new snow, second photo, basal facets, third photo, rime in the trees.

I traveled from 7400-10,400 mostly on the north half of the compass. I found soft snow at all elevations and aspects traveled. I was surprised that I didn't encounter melt/freeze crust at lower elevations with the warm temps from the last couple of days. Skinning, i was sandboxing on and off at lower elevations up to about 9K but mostly supportable. Rime above about 10K but not much.

I did two ECT's with one ECTX and one ECTN18, 39cm's down. Four CT's all failed on basal facets with moderate effort to fail. One CT18RP 57cm's down. A bit a temperature gradient in the upper 20 cm's of the snowpack but not radical.

Today's forecast reflected what I was finding in my travels.