I traveled from 7900 ft. - 10,200 ft. on the north half of the compass. I dug several pits today, all on NW aspects between 9800 ft. and 10K. For some reason I was expecting little results from my tests but in all pits I was getting columns or extended columns to fail with moderate effort and relatively clean shears and extended columns were collapsing on the basal facets and then shearing across the column on the old snow small grain facets/two week old "new" snow interface. In the area I was traveling in, most of the terrain is very rocky with large spans of scree; coverage is barely adequate for sliding. As we add more snow to the pack the slab is becoming more connected and bridging the weak facets it is sitting on. Based on stability tests in this area I would estimate today and tomorrow's danger as considerable, especially on steep terrain on the north half of the compass and, with plenty of snow available for transport, any zone that is experiencing wind loading.

Cracking in the new snow.