Soft Snow at Lower Elevations on Rose Knob

We went to Rose Knob Peak today to see if we could catch some morning corn snow before the forecasted cloud cover increased this afternoon.  Sunny skies existed this morning with some increasing haze and thin clouds in the late morning.  SW winds were moderate and increased to strong along the upper bench at 9000' with colder temperatures than we have had the last several days.  Our plan was to ski below the 9000' bench in more wind protected gully features with E-SE exposure in the late morning hours.  Snow surface conditions were firm along the bench with terrain above 9000' also firm and probably not softening much today due to the strong winds, colder temperatures, and increasing cloud cover.  Supportable snow with a few inches of soft wet surface snow and good travel conditions we found to be the best around 8800' and below.  We left the area around midday as cloud cover continued to increase.