Shale Creek

Toured up to 8200 feet to North facing meadow that drops into Shale Creek. Lots of new downfall to navigate on the approach. Shallow snowpack. We dug a pit just below high point on a due North aspect, slope angle was 28 degrees. Height of snow was a paltry 50cm with a simple snow structure from surface to ground: 10cm Fist hard newish snow, 25cm 4finger soft slab, 10cm layer of Fist hard large grained faceted crystals (4mm), on top of a basal ice crust of 5cm on the ground. We performed an Extended Column Test and got propagation on the layer of facets on the crust at 12 loading steps (ECTP 12). Cold temps have weakened the shallow snowpack which is noticeably less dense and supportable than it has been.