We dug a pit on a north-facing aspect at 8,700' off Highline Ridge and found an overall snow depth of about 145 cm. The upper 45 cm (approximately 17") consisted of fist-hard to 4-finger-hard new snow, primarily stellar and rimed stellar. Below that was a 1-finger-minus hardness dust layer, followed by well-preserved small grain facets. The new snow and dust layer facet interface sat atop a 1F-hard slab with rounding facets near the ground.

I was looking to see if we could get any results within the dust crust facet interface, which has caused the most issues over the last few days. We got an ECTX in our pit, and Greg—who was out in a similar zone—also got ECTX on a pit at a higher elevation. When I pried on the block, we were able to get it to fail on the small grain facets, but overall, it didn’t seem like there was enough wind loading or weight in this location.

Snow depth in Mineral seems to be improving significantly. Where we dug at 8,700', the depth was 145 cm, and at 9,000' on a north-facing aspect where we probed, it measured 200 cm—a huge improvement over the last few weeks.

The snow surface was beginning to weaken, with RR occurring during periods of sun. Curious to see which aspects hold a crust tomorrow morning, as the sun was strong and temperatures were warm.

---