Clear skies, air temp was in the 20s. The snow was crusted and variable in open terrain exposed to the wind and sun, with settled powder on terrain sheltered from wind and sun.

We dug 3 pits during the touring day. The first, at about 9700 ft on a sheltered slope with a NW aspect, showed a 2m+ deep, generally right side up snowpack, with about 40cm of fist-hard powder on top of 3-finger density snow, increasing to 1-finger density about a meter below the surface. No deep facets seen in this pit. (Pic #2)

In the second pit, at a similar aspect and elevation, but in open terrain, we found 25-30cm of settled powder on top of a 2-5 cm thick denser (3 finger) crust, with weaker snow underneath. We performed an ECT and got full propagation on this layer on the 7th tap from the elbow, but the block didn't slide. (Pic #1) The block slid on the first tap from the shoulder.

In the third pit, on a slightly more northerly aspect in open terrain, we again saw generally right side up snow density in the top meter of the snowpack, with some variation in density lower down, but nothing we felt concerned about.