20-21

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!

From obs: "Yesterday my partner and I attempted to ski the notch couloir off Koch Peak in the Hilgards. There was a strong western wind that picked up throughout the day, but we didn't notice any recent avalanche activity from the new snow. The snow seemed very consolidated underneath the new 6" or so that had fallen, but once we started skinning up the apron we noticed significant and variable wind-loading, so we dug a pit. Our pit was at the base of the couloir at approximately 10,400 and was directly east-facing.

From obs: "NW of Elf Lake. Lower Pitch in Trees, 2 well defined weak layers present primarily at surface (30cm) and just below at (20cm). 7785FT, Clear, 25F. 10 degree Slope Facing Easterly in forest below steeps." Photo: J Budreski

Yesterday my partner and I attempted to ski the notch couloir off Koch Peak in the Hilgards. There was a strong western wind that picked up throughout the day, but we didn't notice any recent avalanche activity from the new snow. The snow seemed very consolidated underneath the new 6" or so that had fallen, but once we started skinning up the apron we noticed significant and variable wind-loading, so we dug a pit. Our pit was at the base of the couloir at approximately 10,400 and was directly east-facing. Here is a summary of our pit results: 25cm of large sugary facets at the ground (fist), 5cm ice crust on top of these facets (pencil), a 30cm very consolidated and well bonded layer (1 finger), a 1-2 cm light surface hoar layer, and a 5cm wind-crust ontop of that. We were worried about the deeper, consolidated layer that was sitting on top of the sugary facets propagating so we performed an ECT test and it failed on ETC-P17 on that layer with a Q3 sheer.
*Edit: I am sorry I didn't submit this pit result on SnowPilot. I'm still learning that software- but I will in the future! Hope this still is helpful.