Dug on an East Face around 10,600 ft in the Gold Basin moraines between Tele Heaven and Exxon's. I've been monitoring the facets in the bottom of the pack each day I've been out. The bottom layer of our snowpack has gained some strength over the past week. Temperature gradients have been small and are promoting rounding of the faceted crystals in this layer. The facets are losing their angles, and are getting smaller in size. Today they measured about 1mm. It has been relatively warm up in the mountains over the past week, and this has been good for the bottom of our snowpack. This layer is very thin in places and I've found it to be 25cm at it's biggest.

I covered a lot of ground today and just about every aspect. South and West faces are getting shallow and could use more snow. As I worked around lower Gold Basin I headed towards lower Exxon's for an exit run. Started up the hiker's left side, took a look at the boulder field in the bottom and bailed. We need more snow!