Hyalite/Divide Basin

Toured in Hyalite main fork today and found decent powder skiing in protected trees up high. No signs of instability observed: no recent avalanches, no cracking, no collapses.

The winds receded throughout the day and the temps gradually dropped while broken skies developed before a final wallop of snowfall around 3pm (S2+ rate) during our exit ski.

It did seem like the open upper elevation slopes all showed surface texture evidence of the the significant wind overnight/this morning. We opted to not mess with them.

Quick pit at 9050' NE aspect HS 140cm with a pronounced facet/decomposing melt freeze crust combo buried ~1m down underneath the solid seeming mid-pack. ECTP27@38cm on the facets above the decomposing crust. Looks like the upper elevation snow pack is headed in the right direction... but still has a way to go before it can actually be trusted.