Toured up to a potential ski area to have an early look before we (hopefully) receive a lot more snow.
Quick hand pits within moderately dense trees at 4450, 4760, and 5170 feet all showed about 10cm of unconsolidated dry snow above a 10-20cm block of misc ice. Hand shear test began to fail easily 10cm down on the top of this ice mass starting around 5k. Bottom of cloud deck at 5200 where rime was observed on the trees and a very thin surface crust appeared in isolated spots.
Practice snow pit was dug in an open area of cobble to boulder sized rocks. Note: I am a beginner at this. I feel confident in the snow hardness profile but could easily have misidentified some of the snow crystals.
Informal trail off of FS road to Wolf Creek.
