Quick report
We climbed from the road closure to the summit of McGee then down again in the southernmost E-facing gully. We travelled on SE-E-NE aspects from 6930’ to 10840’ as well as the road which is N aspect. It was clear that the snowpack had a hard freeze last night at all elevations. Air temps were chilly in the early morning under the blood moon but with no wind. Travel conditions were firm - refrozen slush and corn up to 9700’. Above 9700’ on NE-E aspects we found small pockets of 1-4cm of new snow - much of it warming - from Sun-Mon as well as wind-scoured old refrozen crusts. True SE was still frozen corn. Where a W or SW wind had loaded the top of the gully there were 3-cm thick soft wind slabs on top of dry powder. Booting around on a NE aspect at 10550’ I punched through into at least 30cm of well developed facets under a thick crust that was usually supportable to boots. The day warmed fast once the sun was up, but on the ridge there was a cooling W or SW light breeze. We descended from the top starting at 10:15. The upper 800-1000’ or so was firm but edgeable, below that was excellent corn and slush, all supportable. The snow was easily skiable all the way to the road closure.