Elephants Hump

We went to Elephants Hump on Carson Pass today. We were able to ski from the trailhead up and down from the peak with some careful route finding connecting snow patches and a few short sections of walking over dirt/rock sections. Radiational cooling provided a superficial refreeze of the snow surface overnight with clear skies. The surface melt freeze crusts were melting quickly, with sun exposed East aspects having a 1F hardness crust remaining with deeper wet snow below at 10:30am.  Other shaded areas still had a much more substantial melt freeze crust that was more supportable, but few areas we encountered were very firm. We descended mostly North and Northeast aspects from the peak down.  These slopes were mainly soft with a little sun exposure in the late morning hours.  The soft snow made the rough snow surface of sun cups and old runnels ski pretty well. At around 8400', the snow surface lost some supportability on these same aspects with more mushy and slow and sticky snow on the way out.