Quick report
We took a few hours to bounce from FFF along the ridge to Gunbarrel and over to Superbowl to take a look around the area for coverage and see how much the surface had softened.
Overall, the Crystal area has very aspect-depenant coverage. Northerlies contain sufficient coverage for over-the-snow travel, while southerlies are largely burnt out. East and West aspects are a mixed bag. Using the ski area (Quicksilver) to ascend and descend from middle and upper elevations seems almost essential at this point.
We carried ski crampons but did not need to use them. We had decent soft skiing, but not exactly corn. There is plenty of old avalanche debris, chunks of cornice, and other irregularities on the surface to navigate.
Snow is still clinging to rocky ledges, ice chunks are fixed to cliff faces, and cornices are diminishing, but still out there. We saw lots of large chunks on the slopes of Superbowl.
No red flag signs of instability were observedWeather
Increasing dark clouds throughout the morning with light precip starting at 12:45.
Snowpack
The snowpack consists entirely of meltforms in various sizes and hardness. The surface had softened roughly 4cm above a more supportable surface. A 34cm pencil-thick crust exists just below the surface with weaker meltforms below. No significant snowpack results.
Avalanche
No new avalanches were observed, although plenty of old ones were spotted.