Cold and wet snow on Echo peak

     I toured up to Echo peak today, the weather was cold to start but warmed up throughout the day. The wind at the summit was calm and out the south but no snow was moving anywhere. On the climb up I saw a variety of surfaces below treeline from: soft cold near surface facets on the shaded aspects, hard melt freeze crusts on solar aspects and wind effected snow in open terrain. As I climbed higher there was evidence of new snow but was 1-2cm at best. At the summit wind scoured and sculpted areas exposed old ice layers and scoured the whole ridgeline. Pockets of large overhanging cornices exsist across the entire ridgeline from Flagpole to Angora peak on the east side of ridge. Looking back towards the Cyrstal range and Mt. Ralston there was no signs of recent avalanches but certainly lots of wind effected snow. Mt. Ralston was hammered by the recent wind event I could see the sastrugi from across the valley. I chose to ride down the east facing slope from the summit, the 1-2cm of snow made for a smooth surface that was supported by a 3-4" crust. I stopped @ 8700' and dug a quick hasty pit. The thick crust showed no signs of instabilty within hand shears and shovel tilt tests. I continued down and as I turn the corner looking at slopes above me there was piles of small loose snow that had naturally released from the day time warming but not amounting to pinwheels or any signifgant size. As I got lower below 7500' the snow on solar aspects was now wet and clumpy in the hand, no turns or cuts produced much movement. On the rest of the way down I saw no other signs of instability within the snowpack.