While conducting a car count I arrived at the end of the plowed road at
approximately 10 AM and found the Centennial Valley VFD ambulance there 
as well as the trailer for their rescue sled.  Centennial personnel were 
responding to a medical emergency involving a snowmobiler in the 
backcountry, and several of their personnel and others had already 
gone in to the location with their snowmobile and rescue sled.  Neil 
of the sheriff's office arrived somewhat later with additional equipment 
and also went in to the location.  I remained at the end of the road 
with other Centennial personnel to be available to assist until all 
personnel returned at approximately noon.  After that I drove to 
Green Rock and skied part of the Potholes trail.

Weather conditions were good, with temperatures initially ~32F, mostly 
sunny, with moderate wind but as usual calm in the trees.  Snow 
conditions on the trail itself were good with adequate snow depth 
even in the south-facing meadows low on the trail.  However the 
trail was getting icy in places with intermittent shade, and the 
snow off the trail was getting crusty.

I met two skiers at the location on the Potholes trail where it 
reaches the trees above the lower meadows and is joined by the 
"Lower Potholes" trail from Sand Lake.  They had skied up that 
route and reported good snow depth and conditions there too -- 
although again with some crusted snow.

I skied the Potholes trail approximately 1/2 of the way to 
Brooklyn Lake, to the spot where the trail climbs onto the 
second esker, and at ~3PM dug a snow pit on the east side 
of the esker north of the trail, at UTM 13 T 0397340  4579925, 
elevation 10430 ft, on a 24 degree slope facing 40 degrees 
azimuth (NE).  This was a relatively open location, but is 
subject to some wind loading and the snow conditions may 
not be that typical of the large open slopes higher in the range.

  layer height Temp.  Hardness    Notes           Crystal structure
    #   cm      C
  air          -6.0
 ------ 130 -------------------------------------------------------------------
    6                  <fist      surface hoar    1.5 mm faceted, mixed with
                                                  1mm needles
 ------ 129 -- -----------------------------------------------------------------
    5   120    -6.0    fist                       1 mm slightly rounded needles
 ------ 118 -- -----------------------------------------------------------------
    4   110    -7.0    3 finger                   0.6 mm rounded
 -------105 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    3                  1 finger                   0.4 mm rounded
 ------ 100 -- -5.0--------------------------------------------------------------
    2    90    -4.5    3 finger    depth hoar     1 mm faceted crystals
         80    -3.5
 ------  70 -- -2.5 -------------------------------------------------------------
         60    -3.5
         50    -2.5
    1    40    -2.0    3 finger    depth hoar     2 mm faceted crystals
         30    -2.0
         20    -1.0
         10    -1.0
 ------   0 --  0.0 --------------------------------------------------------------

The thick depth hoar is becoming moderately consolidated, as is the upper part of the snowpack.
There was a very thin slightly harder layer between the two parts of the depth 
hoar (#1 and #2), as well has the 5 cm thick harder layer (#3) at the top of the 
depth hoar.  The recent warm days and clear cold nights have produced the surface 
hoar layer which could be a potential sliding surface once more snow is deposited.  
Also, although this location didn't show a hard surface crust, other more exposed 
and south facing locations probably will.

In a shovel shear test it required moderate force to produce a shear somewhere 
near the 100 cm layer, which then cut diagonally through the upper (layer #2) 
depth hoar.  It then required moderate force to produce a second diagonal shear 
deeper in the depth hoar.

The car counts were as follows, at 10 AM for all areas except for Green Rock 
Picnic Ground which was counted at 11:53 AM.

                            with    without
                          trailers  trailers
 Corner Mountain Lot         0         1
 Little Laramie Lot          0         2
 Below Cattleguard          42         5
 Cattleguard to Turnaround  25         5
 Green Rock Picnic Gnd. Lot  0         6
 P. G. to Snowy Range Lodge 21         9

 Total                      50        13