Snow conditions in the June lake back country

I went for a quick tour off the top of June mountain today with an eye out for solar warming. Skiing from the top of J7 towards the hourglass the recent dusting of new snow from last weekend was dense and provided some protection from the hard MF crust below.  Climbing through the hourglass [proved challenging with surface conditions comprised of a variety of wind board. I shouldered the skies to climb through the pinch and was happy to have a boot pack to follow. Surface conditions remained hard and windswept for the majority of my climb to the top of the negatives. A notable exception was the final leg up the SE aspect to the San Joaquin ridge where the sun had softened the upper 5 cm of snow. At 1230 the temperature was 38° F at 11500’ on top of the negatives. Winds were light out of the west and the skies were clear.  I opted to descend via the solar aspects on the skiers left side of the negatives.  Surface conditions in the direct sun were as close to corn skiing as I have found since last spring. Recent tracks were also starting to flatten out after the last few days of melt-freeze cycle. I observed a max of 10 cm of moist snow on top of a supportable subsurface.  Poking into recently shaded areas I found the MF crust was already stiffening up. In full shade surface conditions were hard and variable, consisting largely of wind board or frozen melt-freeze crusts. I not able to initiate any rollerballs instead, debris would break up into dust as it rolled down the hill. Investigating some rock outcroppings for more extensive surface melt I was able to find an area with about 20 cms of boot pen, but again I was unable to initiate any surface movement. The lower flanks down to Yost creek were a bit more interesting with a refrozen zipper crust keeping me on my toes. All in all, it was a beautiful day in sunny California with many signs of stability and no significant signs of instability.