Obvious rime crusts present on most open terrain at ~9000-9500'. Melt-freeze crusts accompany rime crusts on southerly terrain making for poor skiing conditions. Sheltered terrain (W-N-NE) at >~9000' still contains softer faceted snow near the surface making for decent skiing. Intermittent snow showers (heavy for small periods of time) during the day dropped 1-2" to soften things up, although dust-on-crust conditions persisted on exposed terrain.

Multiple audible collapses occurred during descent off of Pioneer ridge (N-NE aspect, 9800') near top of fat city condos on a low angle (29deg) slope. A few visible cracks indicated that propagation may have occurred on facets below a poorly developed rime crust ~ 10cm down from the surface, indicating obviously instability that may step down to well documented weak layers lower in the snowpack with additional load.