Calm clear day on Trimmer Peak

     We toured up to Trimmer Peak today. At the trailhead there was a widespread breakable melt freeze crust from the last couple of days of warming and overnight freezing. This crust persisted all the way up to the bench of bonus lap on any spot that has received recent solar radiation. Shaded areas still held cold snow but there was a distinct line between the two. While climbing up Bonus lap we stopped to dig a pit on a N-NW apsect at 7800' in below tree line terrain, I was looking for the Jan. 29 buried surface hoar layer but found a 25cm layer of buried near surface facets that were reactive on the compression test but did not propagate within the ECT. This layer was weak and did not have much moisture to it and was buried under ~30cms of recent new snow. In the future with more loading this layer could be concerning. As we continued up towards Trimmer Peak proper most snow above this elevation was cold even on some solar West facing aspects which we found surprising after the last couple days of warming. Once we were in near tree line terrain there was a subtle breeze out of the SW but there was no signs of any transpoting snow all the way to the drop in near the summit. Once we dropped in I stopped again @ 9200' on a NW aspect and dug another pit. Here I did find buried surface about ~30cms down and it also was reactive on the compression test but again showed no signs of propagation with in the extended column test. The ride down was a little of a mixed bag as some sun exposed areas did start to warm up and caused some sticky snow so we kept to the shaded areas as it provided the best snow quality. We hiked back up to the bonus lap and on the way down it was very similar with the snow conditions; however, as we got lower in elevations the snow in the sun was very sticky and even created rollerballs on turns and ski cuts. Once back below 7000' the early morning crusts had softened up to warm wet snow. No other signs of instabitlity was observed throughout the tour.