Figured it was a good idea to get out before the storm and take a look at what the forecasted new snow is going to land on. Did the somewhat painful hike to No Name Bowl from BCC. No Name has the bad reputation as a facet factory, 9500ft north facing, steep, shady and wind protected. Total amount of snow is between 12 and 15 inches, dug a quick pit in the starting zone on the most northerly part of the bowl, basically the pack consist of 3 to 4 inches of fairly well developed facets at the ground with the rest of the mid-pack on its way to faceting, then the rime crust which is much thinner in this location than I was seeing in upper Cardiff, with a couple inches of winded graupel capping it off. Got a clean shear at the facets on the ground upon isolation of the column, same results with a couple more quick pits. I'm thinking the only reason the column stayed in one piece is that the starting zone had received wind and there was a delicate slab above the facets, once down in the middle of the bowl out of the wind affect the snow pack was unsupportable and rotten to the ground with no slab. Hiking out up the main bowl became a sand boxing battle, one step back for every two steps forward. In comparison with the deeper snow pack of upper Cardiff, No Name Bowl has some of the weakest snow I've seen, which to people that have been around a while should be no surprise. I'm thinking that areas such as this are not going to hold much weight if we do get a nice dose of snow, and the areas like Cardiff with a deeper snow pack and a denser slab will hold more weight and thus produce larger and more dangerous avalanches if we ever get a good load.

Photos: Pit and results, well developed facets at the ground, coverage in No Name, and finally tired of tripping in the weeds, pray for snow

Hazard depends on wind and new snow amounts it was low today.