Quick report
I travelled to Van Patten Lake on skis this morning, finding a firm 5-10cm's of new snow and temperatures hovering around freezing at the parking area (6500' and north facing). It was snowing lightly all morning with very little wind observed on N-E-SE aspects. As I travelled up to 7500' the amount and quality of the storm snow increased noticeably, with ~15cm's observed at the lake. Boot and ski penetration was limited to the storm snow, and a very hard crust was present underneath. This crust made for slippery travel on steeper sections of my up-track, and I did not observe enough cohesiveness in the storm snow to demonstrate cracking underneath my skis on small test slopes. The new snow also did not shear easily in hand pits, and appeared to be bonded to the crust where I traveled. I dug a snowpit at 7500' on an east aspect and found 110cm's of snow, generally divided into four layers: the new snow on the surface, an obvious rain crust/melt freeze crust combo resting on top of a very stiff 1F slab, another series of crusts and finally the old November snow which was about 30-40cm's (1'+) thick in this location. During a compression test I observed a sudden collapse in this layer with 22 taps. I did not observe any propagation during a propagation saw test. Skiing conditions were improving throughout the day and the combination of stout crust underneath boot-top powder offered protection from obstacles and fast smooth travel. Skies remained obscured and winds light-calm with consistent S1 snow.