East wind and later softening of snow

We began our AIARE course tour around 9AM with firm surface conditions. Boot packing was more successful than skinning in some spots. On the Mount Judah ridge we observed a moderate East wind around 11:30AM. We also observed that East facing slopes had not yet softened up enough for enjoyable skiing due to the East winds. We continued to the SE ridge of Judah and conditions were just soft enough around noon to have a good time skiing. Touring back out to the saddle between Judah and Donner Peak, we observed faceting between crusts in the upper snowpack in shady, below treeline terrain on a NE aspect around 7,600'.

The intially firm skinning conditions on our ascent ended up being a soft, enjoyable ski down to the cars around 3PM.