Ninko Cabin Country

On Monday morning there was about 7-8 inches of cold/light snow at my cabin in the north fork (3750'). We were expecting quite a bit more up Whale Creek, but we found the opposite trend. There was about 4 inches of snow at the Ninko Cabin (4660') Monday afternoon. This 4 inches was sitting on top of a rain crust that formed the prior thursday night (Feb 1st). Not only was there less snow, but the crust layer also seemed significantly more pronounced at Ninko, perhaps due to colder temps? A Harder and more rapid refreeze? On Monday afternoon, we felt this rain crust vanish around 5800', above which the skiing conditions were quite good. No signs of instability and about 6 inches of light new snow at 6600' On Tuesday, we ventured up Huntsberger Ridge to explore the terrain options into Shorty Creek. Again we found a pronounced rain crust layer underneath the new snow that seemed to vanish around 5800'. Again the skiing conditions were quite good and there were very little signs of instability. We did however find that the fresh cornices overhanging the east side of the ridge were easily detached. There was ~8 inches of new snow at 7000'. It had lightly snowed both Monday and Tuesday with very light accumulations. About 1 inch in total. Tuesday night the rain/snow line was fluctuating dangerously close to the cabin. On Wednesday, we opted not to ski because it had started to lightly rain some time during the night/early morning. It had switched back to snow by noon, but the snowpack had already been saturated. As we departed on Wednesday afternoon, the precipitation had switched back to rain once more. Remaining as the primary form of precipitation at lower elevations until about 1pm on Thursday, Feb 8th.