While I am not a backcountry skier, I think I can say with confidence that it would not be possible to ski below LBSL. We hiked up the creek, and boots were on either rock, ice, or very limited amounts of snow. Gotta love the sound of crampons on rocks...sort of like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Above LBSL, everything appeared to be a winter wonderland. But there were lots of rocks just below the surface, which our boots exposed. But you couldn't count on that either ... on the way down, we had a lot of postholing (there had been new snow overnight), with snow sometimes coming up to our waists. At our high camp, at over 12,000 feet, the snow cover in places was only 6 or so inches deep.
