Went up to Black Bess (Grizzly Gulch) today to take a look at high elevation W facing slopes. We dug a pit on a west facing shady slope at 9,930' and found 60 cm of snow separating us from the ground. The snowpack at this location is a multi-layered sandwich of soft snow in between crusts. We found 1-mm faceted grains between 13-21 cm above the ground, below a stout crust (as seen in photo), We also found small faceting rounds above this crust 27-49 cm above the ground. With clear nights and a light breeze in the forecast, we expect the faceting process to continue. We purposefully chose this location for a snowpit to remind ourselves that protected areas of lingering, rotting snow are something to look out for throughout the season, and they don't only exist on north facing slopes.