Quick report
Snow below 6300' has been going through freeze thaw cycles this week. Below 5800', the snow softened to its full depth this afternoon. Between 5800 -6300' only the top inch or two softened, above 6" of hard frozen snow, with softer snow beneath. Above 6300', none of the 6-8" thick hard surface layer softened. At these altitudes and above, the surface is ice covered with crampons penetrating less than 1/2". On Monitor ridge from 7650' to the rim at 8250', scoured ridges had 6-8 inch rime ice prongs that have been remodeled, likely by freezing rain. Below 5800', climbing involves a lot of boulders and deep postholes in patchy snow between rocks. Above 5800', crampons are required. There are too many exposed rocks for skiing on most of the mtn and the places that have some snow also have lots of ice. Nobody is skiing. I was also up on Tuesday 12/12 and the conditions were identical. There were no signs of any avi activity.