Skied NE and SW aspects today around 6500'. The polar slopes hold some fluffy/sluffy snow on top of a supportable crust. Solar aspects are variable, with some light surface snow to be found in the shady trees. Mild wind effect was noted on the ridgetop and the top couple hundred vert of skiing, but no windslab development on the windward side that we found, though we avoided open terrain in those top start zones. Surface hoar was abundant on the ride in and the skin up, though not as big in size as I expected. Handpits on the SW aspect showed a crust sandwich with 2-4 cm faceting, cohesionless snow between, and similar sugar below. Vis was poor on the ridgetop, so the oncoming storm lived only our imaginations, and no new snow yet by our exit about 4:30p.
