Quick report
We toured up Incline Peak along the standard skin track across Incline Lake. It was overcast, moderate gusts, and 31F at the parking lot. Going across Incline Lake there were signs of moisture in the surface of the snow and there may have been mist in the air. There was an obvious rain crust with wet and heavy snow underneath it. After traversing the NE bowl and starting to climb back towards the summit we entered the clouds at around 8900ft. So no signs of instabilities. Evidence of wet snow falling from trees and solidifying under their canopies. At the summit of Incline Peak there was trace amounts of snow precipitating and light wind transport going on. Traversed down about 100ft from the summit onto the SE face to dig a pit. Stayed away from any trees and went far enough down from the ridge and any other prominent objects to avoid any localized wind effects. Snow depth was 110cm. Mostly 1F hardness with a 4F layer between 70cm and 90cm. Two rain crusts, one just beneath the recent dusting of snow, and one at 90cm where the snow transitioned from 4F to 1F. Dug to the ground and it was evident that all snow here occurred during the major storm the week of Christmas unlike some N and W aspects in the Mt Rose area (did not see any degraded or sintered snow like was found on Mt Rose previous to the Christmas storm). Extended column test yielded ECTX. Skied the NE bowl on the way out. All N-facing descents looked extremely tracked, and with the wet and heavy snow near the surface did not ski well. Should have yellow-waxed my skis. Found some soft spots in the rubble field of the bowl.