New Snow and Old Crusts on Punta Bardini

Toured up Punta Bardini this morning for a few laps.  Left the TH around 0900 in fog and light snow.  As we toured up to 10115', we were surprised to find only about 35 cm of new snow even at higher evelations, with a very noticeable crust below about 9400'.  Dug a very quick hand pit at 10000' in a sheltered NW facing slope near trees.  Total snowpack depth 155 cm, 35 cm new snow over a right side up pack with no apparent crusts.  Snowfall increased as the day wore on; calm to light wind; fog all day.  At one point while skinning on the NW face we were able to cut a 6" storm slab loose on the skin track, but later when were skiing the same aspect, only about the top 1 or 2 inches of loose snow was sloughing - no slab activity.  We did not ski the main chute, but some others did.  Skiing in the upper reaches of Bardini was very good, but the newly buried crust became more and more problematic at lower elevations.  As we drove down to Bishop around 3:30, the rain-snow line was markedly low - perhaps around 5500'?