Rubicon

Toured Rubicon late morning to late afternoon. 10-12" of new snow between 7,000 and 9,100 feet. Shaded N/NE slopes held cold, medium-density snow, with denser, gloppy snow on sunny east aspects. The new snow was rightside-up and seemed to have bonded well to the prior surface, which felt supportable. Ski pen was ~8" for much of the ascent with no cracking, whumphing, or other evidence of storm slab instability in the trees. Shaded N/NE aspects above 8,000 feet skied well until after 4pm. Below that the snow was stickier from higher temps and tree bombs, with a 1-inch sun crust in exposed areas.

Looking west into Desolation Wilderness we saw a series of natural slides on a steep, east-facing, mid-slope cliff band (Pic 1).

Stomping on an undercut, wind-loaded test slope near the summit of Rubicon only produced minor cracking, no slab release (Pic 2).