Went to Dry Fork today with a little help from Alta Ski Patrol. I was pleasantly surprised with the snow quality, I skied in Red Pine on Monday and about had my teeth rattled out buy the thick but breakable rain/rime crust. I could not find much evidence of this crust in the Gargoyles. The N facing at about 10,300ft consisted of about 5 inches of light density snow on top of a spongy soft base, even the old snowmobile tracks were breaking down. The snow under the fresh couple of inches is faceting rapidly and becoming weak but is not as complicated as the terrain with the crust, which has faceting under the crust and on top of it, and the crust is decomposing in some areas and not so much in others, not to mention a slick bed surface.I didn't spend anytime on W facing which seems to have gotten the biggest share of the crust but, it was not present in the terrain covered. The surface will continue to weaken with a cold clear night, nice for skiing conditions now but will most likely become problematic with a load. As usual there are some massive cornices in the Gargoyles that should be given respect if the temperature rises.

photos: cornices, and boot deep penetration in soft snow.