Mt. Aire can have a thinner and weaker snowpack than the tri-Canyons, so we wanted to have a look around. We went up Snowdrift (peak to east of Mt Aire) to dig a couple pits. Our highest pit was at 8,440' (that's just under the ridgeline up there!) on a north aspect. While there were basal facets evident, the weak layer is so close to the ground that it is interrupted by rocks and shrubs. Moreover, the 2.5 mm facets were damp where they weren't frozen, and several extended column tests gave the same reassuring result: no fracture, no propagation. Probing in a few spots the structure seemed similar to where we'd dug: 105cm was a representative depth, and only around rocks did the probe drop the final few centimeters as it will with basal facets. We skied steep north and east-northeast. If we had hiked up the other side to Mt. Aire proper we would have again pulled out probe and shovel to look for shallow snow and poor structure.