Wind on the ridge line.

Found a deeper snowpack in the higher elevation terrain where we traveled. The snowpit I dug was around tree-line in the wind zone at 10,500 ft. Column tests were generally failing with easy effort about 7 cm's down (3") on, what looked like fragmented particles but they could have been fine grain faceted crystals. ECTN4 on this layer. I did have one column fail upon isolation. CT's were also failing with easy to medium effort 65cm's (26") down. This was the weakest interface and CT's and ECT failed on 2-3mm faceted crystals with easy to medium effort with clean, energetic shears. This layer will be one to watch for when we get more weight on the pack.

The wind was moving snow on the ridge lines.

Temperature gradient in the upper 40cm's (16") of the snowpack.

Overall though, the snowpack has adjusted to the weight and the danger seemed moderate. We saw no signs of recent avalanches and recent snow machine activity on small, steep slopes produced no results. That being said, there is a lot of spacial variability in the snowpack and you need to be doing your homework while traveling around. I'm still steering clear of steep slopes. With unsettled weather and more snow forecasted over the next few days, conditions will be changing.

Photo below shows the faceted grains located 65cm's down where I was having most of my test failures.