I dug two snowpits at 9300' in the Lower Birthday Chutes area. While both resulted in an ECTX, both also showed instability at 55cm on the graupel layer from the beginning of the last storm cycle. One notable difference is that the NW aspect, more sheltered snowpit shows a notable weak layer from the cold, dry nights between the first and second storm cycles, just below this graupel layer. I believe that when we have subsequent loading events, we are likely to see problems on North aspects originating in the decomposing precip & graupel weak layer, and on Southeast to West aspects we will see issues on the graupel layer and on the near-surface MF crust.

One other item to note was the moderate wind transport coming off of high, exposed ridgelines loading north aspects.