We were surprised today by some decent riding in the Tony Grove area. Lots of folks were out enjoying the new fluff and spotty sunshine. We found about a foot of fresh powder from the last storms sitting on top of a solid rain/melt/freeze crust from about a month ago. Crusts are normally not a great thing, but today we actually didn't mind how it kept us off of the rocks and stumps below. We found around 20" of snow near the campground. Probably 8" of solid base capped with a crust. The crust was capped with faceted snow which was in turn capped with the foot of fresh fluff. We didn't observe any cracking or collapsing, but we were definitely not the first folks in this zone. Things could get spicy with a heavier load or slab. Wind would definitely increase the risk.

All in all, it was a fun day to walk around in the mountains.