6"

Low

Powder

Faceted Loose

Melt-Freeze Crust

I dug a couple of pits one out of the 9990 exit and another along ridge. I found similar structure along the entire area even in areas of shallow snow pack. There was 4-8 inches of powder then crusts to facets to the ground. There were three layers of crust which were not forming consistent slabs across different aspects. Between the crusted layers, the snow structure was various size facets to the ground. I poked throughout the area with my glove even in very shallow areas and the results were the same. I experienced no shooting cracks. I did not perform any isolated column test since the facets were filling my pits faster than I could remove them. Between the crust, it was as if sugar was being poured out of a container, the faceted snow simply fell into the snow pit as I dug.