Hyalite Main Fork- Palace Butte

Went up the north side of Palace Butte yesterday all the way to 9800 ft. Above treeline (8600 ft) we found the HS to be between 30 and 100cm. My main observation would be that at this elevation and aspect, the October snow did not form a crust, and there is weak faceted snow at the base of the pack (and on top too for that matter). Snow surfaces are either diurnal facets or 1F wind slab. Foot penetration generally was to the ground. We did not observe any signs of recent avalanche activity anywhere in the area, no cracking collapsing etc. Meant to send this last night but I forgot!