Toured from about 5,400' to 7,400'. Hs ranged from ~1m to almost 2.5m along ridge lines at the higher elevations. No cracking or collapsing. Hst seemed to range from 15-30cm, more in drifted areas. Early March crust was supportive and slippery and made skinning tricky on southerly aspects (almost time for ski crampons?)

Snow was strong but still had some interesting structure. Even on north side of compass, several melt-freeze crusts delineated various Feb. storms and seemed to have things pretty locked up. In addition to the snowpilot and annotated photo from the NW, I also dug on a NE aspect, same elevation. Very similar structure and got a CT 29 (SC) down 59cm on some softer snow below a crust.