Temps were bitter cold in the early AM and then warmed up a lot once the sun was out for a few hours. There was not any wind to speak of while we were out. Still experiencing cracking and collapsing on mid elevation slopes that don’t have tracks on them. Both snow pits I dug on west and north aspects had faceted snow and propagated cleanly when I performed an extended column test.

The snow surface between 8,500ft and 9,500ft is starting to weaken quite a bit from the cold clear nights. You could feel the surface facets as you skied through them. There was also surface hoar forming on some of the shady slopes. I would keep your eye out for this in the coming weeks because it seems like it could end up as a mid pack weak layer ...unfortunately.

In the upper elevations it is a contrast between wind scoured slopes and wind loaded slopes. Generally, the upper reaches of Maybird are thin and rocky. There is not really enough snow on the headwall to ski.

For those interested, i’ve included some additional details for the two snow pits I dug in Maybird:

Pit one:

West facing - 9,800ft - snow height: 90CM

ECT P 23 - November facet/crust combo (50 CM below surface)

I was surprised to see how faceted the snow was on this west facing slope. It looked and felt a lot like the pits I’ve been digging on north faces. The facets near the ground are gaining some strength and cohesiveness, but up near the crust they are still very weak. I experienced a collapse and shooting crack as I walked away from this snow pit.

Pit two:

North facing - 10,000ft - snow height: 135CM

ECT P 5 - new snow sandwiched between wind slabs (5 CM below surface)

ECT P 12 - low density snow below a wind slab (25 CM below surface)

My second snow pit was on a north facing roll in the higher alpine. This particular spot has gotten some wind loading so the snow was quite deep. There was a thin layer of low-density snow sandwiched between wind slabs 5CM below the surface that was quite reactive. There was another layer of low-density snow below a wind slab that was also reactive about 25CM below the surface. November facet/crust combo was present but buried too far down to be reactive. When I pried on the column it broke cleanly on the November crust/facet layer. On a slope with less depth from wind loading, I would suspect it could be more reactive.