Quick report
A nice little walk to the weather station this morning to check things out. Beauty of a cold bluebird morning. Light wind on the upper sections of the ridge. Snow coverage is quite thin but still skinnable from Galena Summit. Heavily faceted surface until around 9500' where it turns to either a nice snow consistency on top (sheltered/north aspects) or pretty wind affected on the ridge itself. Encountered some early cornicing and wind slabs on the higher portions of the ridge. Dug a small pit at ~9500' on a NW aspect. About a 35cm total depth with a few layers to cause issues down the line. The base layer from an early storm is heavily faceted. I was out solo (with my dog) so kept it very conservative, but managed to get a few turns in. For sure still rock ski territory and opted to take my skis off a number of times to avoid major ski damage or body damage!