Light rain and warming snow in Mt Rose area

Went for a quick tour from the Tamarack Peak parking area late this afternoon to see how the new snow was holding up with today's unsettled weather in the Mt. Rose area. On the drive up from Reno, we observed a steady rain from Galena Creek up to the Winters Creek road, which then turned to more of a light mist above that. Surface of the snowpack was good "snowball" snow (i.e. high water content) and was quite gloppy. We caused one significant whumpf not far from the trailhead crossing a creek, no shooting cracks were observed. We dug a pit on a N facing, 25 degree slope at ~8,800 ft. Total snow depth was 78 cm, 35 cm being snow that fell during the last storm sitting on the December 11 persistent slab (wind slab/facet interface). ECTP23, with failure/propagation at 43 cm on the persistent slab. Found that the facet layer was fairly damp; with a moderate squeeze, facets exhibited some bonding. Did not have our full kit with us, but a temperature profile would have been interesting. Snow for skiing today at these mid-elevations was very supportable, but also a bit heavy.