Snow pit is a composite pit profile from what we were looking at on northerly aspects at about 9800. HS 160 cms, but largely due to almost a meter of snow deposited from different wind events. Only result of interest was ECTN8 down 20 cms with the failure in the New Years facets. We thought we might be able to get one of the layers sandwiching the wind events to fail, or perhaps some of the weaker snow sitting below the pencil-hard wind deposits. And despite almost breaking boots using the Wendy Wagner AK boot test (I hope I have that name right .... still waiting for SWAG confirmation) no results.

Photo is of faceted snow down 20 cms (8") from the snow surface - the New Years facets. This was the active layer 7-8 days ago (Jan 11-12) but in this area the facets are clearly showing they are gaining strength. This is consistent with what I have been seeing in areas with a deeper snowpack - the New Years facets don't look as weak as in areas that had thinner snowpacks (i.e. Millcreek.) In addition there is a very small slab on top that has no energy (no propagation on ECT tests.)

Surface snow is weakening as expected.

Low avalanche hazard where we were traveling.