Piute pass to Goethe Lake

Quick report

Last week I went on a pretty solid epic to try and fulfill a longtime dream of snagging a permanently snowy couloir after the first storm but before the season actually starts. What a beatdown! Conditions were grim and I turned around just shy of the remnant glacier. There was enough snow to skin from Loch Leven, but there isn't enough coverage in the drainage to ski at any elevation. I didn't hit any rocks, but I was really careful and skin skiing. I only actually skied a short pitch at 11300', otherwise I left skins on the entire time. Rocks weren't covered, the trail was visible and easy to follow all the way to the pass, and the talus was just covered enough to cover the holes but not enough to support weight so I was punching through into the gaps every few steps, all the way to 11,900', and it didn't look any better above. Winds ranged from blustery to pretty gnarly, and in quite a few directions. Snow banners pointed Northwest on Muriel but they were blowing snow south on Goethe. Temps were frigid in the evening, maybe low teens(?), but the winds died down around noon the 3rd and I took a warm sunny nap on a boulder at Goethe lake. I did not observe any wet snow surfaces above 10700'. I turned around because I didn't have enough time to make it up the couloir and to the summit, despite having camped up there. However, the couloir itself looked to be in great condition. The lakes were all frozen thoroughly except for Goethe (maybe because it's the largest and deepest?). The masochistic alpine ice skater would majorly score if they made it up there.