Wanted to look at the same aspect E-NE but at a higher elevation than No Name. Dug a pit in the starting zone of South Monitor away from the already avalanched part. The pit was at 9800ft sunny E facing but with a tad bit of N in it, the bottom layer was a 3 inch crust at the ground that was almost damp then 1 finger, 2 finger, 3 finger and finally fist in the settled powder at the top of the pack. Pretty good set up with a right side up snow pack and no real weak layers of consequence. Hopefully we will get another dose of snow to keep the pack insulated and slow down the faceting process. The large part of the slope that avalanched last Friday has different issues, there’s only a foot or so of light density snow sitting on dirt and this will facet rapidly with cold clear nights and become a weak layer and probable repeater when we do get a new load.

photo: snow pit in S Monitor