Quick report
Went for a tour through the Mt. Rose wilderness today, chasing decent turns on several peaks and aspects. As expected, I found a variety of surface conditions, and generally thin coverage, but pretty good skiing. Air temperatures were above freezing all day, but periods of sporadic cloud cover and gusty NW winds at the ridges made things feel cooler occasionally. My first descent was on the N facing Broken Glass Bowl at ~1045, and this was on mostly supportable windboard above the treeline. Down lower in the trees, and on most sheltered, northerly slopes throughout the day, the predominant feature was soft, faceted surface snow. Where I could find this, it made for excellent skiing, as the frozen snow at the bottom of the snowpack created a very supportable base layer. My second descent was on the SE face of Mount Houghton around noon. There was a relatively planar melt-freeze crust on this slope, which was supportable to skis on the ascent. It had begun to soften in the sun, and on the descent was also pretty enjoyable, especially as I decreased in elevation, where it became almost a pseudo corn type of skiing. My final descent was on the Northeast facing slope between Hourglass and Proletariat on the exit to the car, and featured all of the conditions I experienced elsewhere, plus lots of refrozen ski tracks.