Previous Rain, Firm Crusts, and Mushy Snow on Relay Peak

We toured up to Relay Peak to see what the warm and wet weather yesterday did to the snow surface conditions in this area.  Remote sensors near this location reported temperatures mostly above freezing overnight with sky conditions thought to be mostly clear.  The snow surface started off soft and wet at the trailhead with some firm locations found in the shade or on northerly aspects.  Above 9000', most northerly aspects held firm refrozen rain crusts in open terrain.  At 9700' at our snowpit location, the rain crust was almost 2'' thick and rain levels looked to well exceed 10,000'.  East aspects were soft and mushy with mostly ski supportable conditions, but a ski pole could easily be pushed to the ground.  Small roller balls occurred on these aspects with every turn.  Southerly aspects in this area had more spring like snow conditions, but with very limited snow coverage.  These slopes were borderline skiable today and will mostly be melted out over the next couple/few warm days forecasted.  A shallow snowpack exists in this area, but no signs of instabilities were present with limited snowpack test results.