Transitional Snow on Rubicon Peak

We skied Rubicon Peak today to see how east aspects were transitioning to melt freeze conditions.  The upper portions of the east face was mostly soft snow that was up to 4-6'' deep that has not seen much effects from melt freeze cycles at this point.  As we continued descending, the snow transitioned to more settled soft snow, then eventually to spring type snow.  A couple inches of good corn snow on top of a melt freeze crust was found in open areas below around 8200'.  Moderate to strong SW winds were encountered along the upper ridge to the peak.  As soon as we dropped down off of the summit area, winds decreased and temperatures were warm with mostly sunny skies.