January 28, 2012, Snoqualmie Pass

What a variety of experiences reported by the Joker and Chuck, guess there was lots of microclimatology going on?   We found mostly nice 12" wind packed but not slabby powder between 10AM and 330PM in the 5400-4200' elevation range, tho the swirling wind had scraped one cat track wide slope down to stiff crust.  Aspect made a big difference for us, NW being much better than W or SW, no surprise after yesterday's sun I guess.  As we reached the cars at 3100' around 330PM, a light rain began to fall; the rest of our day was precipitation free except for 15minutes of graupel around 4500' at 2PM or so.   Below 4200' Wednesday night's surprise rain crust was easily breakable below 3-4" packed drier snow and troublesome.