Quick report
It is not ski season yet in the Sierra. That's my general observation. But I also like sliding around on snow, moving through the mountains in the wintertime. So I went out to see how Tioga was holding up after the gate opening. Height of snow ranges from 35-40cm on average above 10,000'. This tapers dramatically below this elevation and on solar aspects. Cover on S aspects at almost 11,000' was 10-20cm. Surfaces are a range of crusts. On solars we observed a supportable 3cm MFcr becoming moist with strong midday solar before refreezing as increased cloud cover and cooling N winds came in. N aspects are a bit more of a mixed bag with breakable wind crusts, supportable windboard, and brief panels of loose surface facets providing up to 2 turns in a row. We did not observe any wind slab, or see any direct signs of instability. While supportive to travel (in general) he overall takeaway was how unskiable this venue is until more snow arrives.