Quick report
We were happy to climb above the clouds into a sunny day above 5000ft in the Eastern Cascades. We brought skis even though we doubted finding enough snow to ski. A very shallow snowpack exists in the Icicle Creek Drainage. Above 6400ft, snow looked more continuous, but hazardous travel through barely snow-covered boulder fields had us turning around before we put on our skis. The thin snowpack that does exist is very weak, with large feathery surface hoar over a zipper crust on the surface.
Weather
The Icicle River Valley was cold with overcast skies. We climbed above the cloud deck at around 5000ft to beautiful blue skies and cold temperatures. Winds were calm throughout the day.
Snowpack
Bare ground transitioned to patchy snow around 4700ft, becoming more continuous by 5000ft. Above 5000ft, snow cover was aspect dependent, with around 30-35cm in flat and shaded terrain and minimal snow cover on southern aspects.
Overall, the snowpack was weak and unconsolidated, with boot penetration to the ground. On sheltered and shady terrain, the snowpack consisted of 1-2mm faceted snow with a crust down around 10cm. The surface had large 2-3cm surface hoar and a thin zipper crust below it. On sunny slopes, where a snowpack still existed, a surface melt-freeze crust overlayed weak snow, and boot penetration was still to the ground. Some smaller 1-2cm surface hoar still survived in spots not exposed to the direct sun.