Quick report
Headed out of LV Cyn to the Gibbs drainage on a quest to find warming snow up high and cold facets down low, while expecting some bushwacking shenanigans on the approach. I was not disappointed. The lower moraine was too dry to skin but too snowy to easily walk, so we slip slided our way up. Maybe I went there so you don't have to. From a distance it looks to me like V Bowl is probably a serviceable approach right now with the gully on the east side possibly holding enough snow to go. The snow pack became skinnable at about 8100'. On north facing BTL terrain, there was approx 30 cm of facets to the ground. Above 9000' on north facing BTL terrain there was approx 60-90 cm of facets to the ground. At about 9900' at NTL on north aspects, there was a wind skin on the surface with approx 30 cm of facets underneath. Some minor localized cracking on this surface. Beneath the facets was a decomposing wind slab. I did not investigate below the slab. Entering the Gibbs drainage at about 10,000' on east facing NTL terrain, conditions were variable. There was some knee breaking breakable crusts in exposed E ridgeline terrain, some fantastic pseudo corn in ESE terrain, and some really nice recycled pow (facets) sitting on top of an ice lens on slightly sheltered E terrain. I did not dig down here. Climbing above Kidney Lake into ATL SE terrain, the snow was soft pseudo corn and skied well. Within minutes of shade hitting terrain in the high alpine, it froze up hard and fast. I did not dig down here. Despite traveling over plenty of steep wet snow today, I kicked off no rollerballs and observed no loose wet instabilities. There was not a breath of wind all day. My takeaways are that there is good skiing to be had if you're willing to set out on a full flavored Eastern Sierra day. Sharks abound and facets are pervasive BTL on N aspects. NTL E aspects is a mixed bag of corn-like snow, facets, and ice. NTL north aspects are wind pressed. ATL solar aspects have early spring conditions right now.