Not all is bad!

Nice day out at Feather with partly cloudy skies, light wind and temps of about -10. Yes it's crusty at lower elevations after last week warm up (and rain) but there is decent ski conditions above 1400m. There is a crust almost to ridge top (1700m at this location) but it is thin and breakable above 1500m. 10 15 cm new snow above the crust in the alpine made for some good turns. The new snow has been transported into deeper deposit in some places, we were able to ski cut some small wind slabs near ridge tops at steeper entrances. Some wind effect also in the new snow. There was also evidence of a few slab avalanches 2 3 days old during the warm up but nothing bigger than size 1 - 1.5. Good coverage overall with average snowpack for the time of the year. Lower elevations are still bumpy a bit but the crust wasn't too challenging to ski.