Crater Crest

Today, we toured up the N face of Crater Crest to see if we could track the ice crust/ facet layer that we saw on Sonora pass in a different zone. We toured from the lakes until we were at a similar elevation band and aspect as were we saw  the layer on Sonora Pass ( 9,500 ft NE aspect , near tree line). Before digging in the snow we probed extensively and were unable to find the layer. We eventually felt the ice  crust layer and dug our pit. It was  80 cm down wich was comparable to what we saw on Sonra Pass, but we did not initiate a fracture on any CT tests , CTX.  We continued our tour uphill to the ridgeline where SE winds were actively transporting snow. The wind quickly died down after lunch and we made our descent.  We stayed on a N aspect most of the day and did  not see any signs of loose wet instability on S faces across the valley. Ski quality was variable, from firmwind board, zipper crust, soft snow sheltered in the trees and sun crust on lower elevation terrain.