Headed to South Monitor today in search of three things, north facing slopes without old faceted snow underlying them, grassy slopes with minimal buried hazards, and steep continuous lines holding enough snow to call it skiing. We stuck to the more easterly facing aspects in the bowl knowing that the more shady, north aspects had old snow before the last storm. Total snow pack is around 16 inches with a large pile of damp graupel at the bottom. We did not experience any cracking or collapsing and there was no real weakness in the new snow except the graupel at the ground which was damp and will center rapidly.

Photos: snow pit reveling a right side up snow pack with graupel at the ground interface, fairly large diameter graupel at the bottom.

It's all about terrain right now, Old faceted snow under the new storm snow on steep slopes, No Bueno, new snow on dirt or a melt freeze crust, green light. I'm sure there are a few booby traps out there on high north and with such thin coverage now is not the time to let your guard down.