So I am super bummed, I had several great pictures of the pit I dug today with some detailed shots of the snowpack, however they were on my phone which was kaput when I got home and it just isn't firing up. If I can get them up soon I will. Here is what I saw today. THe snow depth at 8900' with a NE aspect was around 200 cm. The top 30 cm appeared to be the snow we got over the last week or so, for the most part this was fist hardness, but got denser the closer you got to the first weak layer at 30 cm. THis layer was about 5 cm thick. Continuing down I noticed a 4f layer before another thin weak spot. From here there was very stout snow with one thin weak layer, followed by the fauceted snow near the ground. The first test I did was a quick column shovel test. Basically, I isolated a 30 cm column on two sides and pushed my shovel down the backside. I like doing this becasue it gives me a good space to get into to isolate my extended column and it helps confirm some of the weak layers I've identified. The first break I noticed was the weak layer at 100 cm, if this was an ECT this was a Q1 sheer. I contiued to push and the layer at 60 cm down broke. Not a good indication of stability but a good warm up test. My ECT had a break at the layer at 60 cm down on the 29th hit but it did not propigate throughout the column. I was surprised to not get anything so I pounded on it for several more swings but nothing happened.
