Limited Snow Softening on Carson Pass

We went to the south side of Red Lake Peak to see if we could find soft spring snow with the warmer temperatures today.  Snow surface conditions were firm on our approach in the morning and we used ski crampons on steeper terrain to access the upper ridge of the peak.  SW winds were moderate to strong along the ridge above 9200' keeping the snow surface firm and cool.  We picked a gully feature with exposed rocks on the side to ski thinking this would provide some wind protection and increased solar radiation, but descending down at noon firm conditions remained.  Once down in more wind protected terrain the snow became softer and provided better conditions.  Aspects and elevations in this area still have mostly transitional snow and established melt freeze crusts have not fully formed yet.