Quick report
Today, we rode into the Taylor Fork. It was cloudy with some sunshine every now and then. Winds were blowing moderately to strong from the South.
We found snow in various different forms today. On southerly aspects, a thick crust has formed over the past days. Very soft (fist hard) facets are below that crust. On shaded spots and northerly aspects, soft facets were near the top of the snowpack. We also found surface hoar in certain locations and wet snow in the lower elevations.
The bottom line of our observation is: The snow surface conditions are spatially variable, but facets in various forms are everywhere either below a crust or right at the surface (except in low elevations where the snow is wet and shallow).
We didn't observe any signs of instability such as recent avalanches or cracking/collapsing.