Thin, but Supportable Refreeze on Castle Peak Until 11 am

Snow surfaces seemed more frozen and supportable when we started skinning this morning. However, when we stopped to dig into the snow on an E-facing slope at 9:30 am, we found that the refreeze was thin and soft with a deep layer of unconsolidated wet snow below it. The surface crust would support us on our skis but barely supported us when we stepped off our skis in the morning. By 10:30-11 am, we started punching through the melt-freeze layer into wet snow on these aspects. We moved up to higher elevation SW and W aspects and found firmer snow surfaces at 10:30 am. Like the E aspects, these held deep wet snow below the surface melt-freeze layer. Between these two aspects, the SE and S-facing slopes had Goldilocks conditions with 1-2 inches of soft corn snow on top of a ski-supportable melt-freeze crust. The supportable conditions lasted till about 11 am on these slopes. By then, we sank into wet snow when we stepped off our skis and started to fall through the crust on our skis in some spots. We switched to lower-angle slopes and made our way back to the car.