Current Xtal/Alpy conditions?

What are conditions like at Xtal & Alpental right now?

At my Friday night poker game one of the guys mentioned he was going snowshoeing up to Commonwealth Basin on Saturday so I decided to go with him. I feared a wind-hold day of skiing bulletproof groomers at Xtal on Saturday if I'd gone skiing. The wind didn't seem bad at all, so maybe that fear was unfounded, but wondering what the snow condtions are really like right now, both inbounds and out.

Up in the basin I found highly variable conditions. There was 2-6" of light powder on top of a thick, icy crust in the trees. Out in the exposed areas it was mostly breakable crust with 2-6" of sugary pow on top of a thick icy layer. Some areas had a really heavy, unbreakable crust made up of two 1-2" layers on top of the sugar and there were a few patches of sugary pow with no crust mixed in. I tried to climb up to the ridge at the N. end of the basin but would've done better to bring my crampons and ice axe rather than just snowshowes as I kept breaking through the crust and then the shoes would slide backwards on the soft snow underneath without being able to dig into the hard layer underneath. Would've made for some really interesting, crash-prone skiing... Of course, most of Commonwealth Basin is South facing so maybe North facing slopes have fared a little better?

In any case, let's pray for some new snow this week, we sure need it. I may end up hitting Alpental this weekend, so am hoping there will be some fresh and the avy conditions won't be too bad though with those hard layers on top of soft, sugary layers things could get really nasty if it warms up and new snow falls.

Who's been up and what did you find?