Caveat, I'm completely new to this, hopefully this is helpful. There is a 3-4" crust on top of mostly weak layers, which consolidate into somewhat more packed layers as they get closer to the ground. Snow is 2-3' deep leading up to treeline. After treeline there are some windblown patches of snow but on the south side of the ridge but very little snow overall. Our snowshoes would create cracking in about a 1' radius around and then collapse through almost to the ground if we were not in a previously trenched area. On two occasions we heard whumpfs and saw collapses of a 5-6' radius around us, but we were on relatively low angle slopes and weren't concerned about a slide. At 6:45am I dug a snowpit at 10,900' on an ENE aspect in 2' of snow and observed the top crust with progressively more consolidated weak layers. Above timberline we made several small snowfield crossings on low angle terrain and these were solid enough to support our weight easily (around 9am). On the decent (10am) we used some of the snowfields on the southern aspect of the ridge to speed our decent and they had softened enough to be perfect for fast low impact travel. None of our footsteps triggered any rolling snow, cracks, or detachment of a crust. Below treeline (11:15am) everything was a nasty slushy mess, but even on slopes greater than 30 degrees we were the only things sliding around. No snow slid other than what our feet moved, and it didn't slide farther than we did. Nothing broke away.

Hiked Colony Baldy in the Sangres from the Horn Creek Trailhead, via the northeast ridge. Snow coverage is in and out along the Rainbow trail, above 9,900' much more consistent on the portions of the trail that we did. Southern aspects have much less snow than northern ones below treeline, as expected. From 10,500' to treeline the snow coverage is almost complete. Above treeline snow coverage is very minimal, we were able to hike from treeline to the peak without making any major snow crossings. No traction was needed after we took off snowshoes at treeline.