Not much old snow above Silver Lake

I planned to ski today, but it was clear immediately upon parking at Tragedy Springs that there wasn't enough snow in this area, though nearby higher elevation peaks appeared to have plenty. It was still a good day for a walk and to see what tonight's forecasted snow would be landing on.

The ridge between Tragedy Springs and Plasse Peak has several steep, shaded start zones that held some continuous patches of old snow (pics 1-3). There were no notable layers in the old snow; it was consolidated melt/freeze. However, there was a light dusting from Saturday that was beginning to show signs of faceting. This layer was very thin and the facets were small and not well developed.

Within view from my hike were a few features just slightly higher in elevation that held much more snow. I could see continuous snow on NW aspects from 8500-9000ft above Allen Camp, and the W aspect of Melissa Coray Peak from 9000-9700ft. Farther to the north, the sunny aspects of Pyramid Peak and the Crystal Range held a surprising amount of snow (pic 4).

On my drive back, I stopped to look at the shaded aspects on some of the high elevation features around Carson Pass (pics 5 and 6). There appears to be a good base for travel after new snow tonight, though obviously I could not assess potential bonding characteristics from the side of the road.