Alpental Valley

"Variable" pretty much sums it up. There are pockets of soft snow out there, but they were shallow, disconnected, and over a very firm old crust. Fortunately this resulted in no discernable avalanche issues where we traveled. 

No signs of instability observed.

Our observations were generally focused on the surface and the few inches of snow over the 1/10 crust. 

Sparkly surface hoar was prevalent on many open slopes. Unsurprisingly, these feathers were much bigger in lower-elevation meadows and near creeks. However, even on steeper slopes above 4500ft, 2-4mm surface hoar had formed.  In open areas where there was softer snow over the 1/10 crust, with showed clear signs of faceting. You could see the sparkles. The grains fell like sugar off  our gloves and crystal cards. You could even hear the snow while skiing. Basically, many open slopes contained weak snow. 

The 1/10 crust was very firm. It was boot supportable throughout our travels. We just didn't find sufficient snow over this crust to pose a hazard. 

Travel Conditions: Travel was the worst in the trees. Frozen tracks, ice chunks, tree bombs, and smooth crusts made for slow and sometimes scary travel. In the open slopes were still variable. Breakable crusts, icy slopes, and pockets of soft snow made it hard to travel smoothly. We also encountered numerous open creeks, random holes, piles of avalanche debris, downed limbs, and frozen old rollerballs. 

Clouds in the morning kept the surfaces frozen. However, even as the sun came out just before noon, we didn't notice any real softening of the surface.