Observation: Colorado Bowl

Today's snow profile on a north facing slope at 10,700 feet shows the rain crust and the new snow that fell on top. What is interesting is that the temperatures got warm enough, and there was enough solar input to form a melt-freeze crust on top of everything. The snow from 11/30 that was previously damp rounding facets showed signs of freezing. It is important to note that the layer is not "locked up" by any means. However, running a crystal card or fingers through this layer produces the sound of frozen grains. The layer is still very weak at fist density. Under a lens, the grains are rounding facets, and I cannot make out any ice grains, but the sound and feeling of ice is present if you poke at the layer. The snow science is interesting, but we still don't have any real avalanche problems to speak of. Photos included below to show the low tide conditions that persist around the range.

The skiing is absolute garbage right now, but my trip up to the mountains was worthwhile to figure out just how the Christmas storm played out. It started as rain as high as 11,400 feet (maybe higher, but I topped out at 11,400'). It eventually changed to snow; there was 1 inch on the storm board and 2 inches of new snow at the higher elevations. All of this is capped by a 1 inch thick melt-freeze crust - the sun came out after the storm and high temperatures reached 43°F.