Porcupine Ridge

Cold and breezy afternoon in the Heavenly backcountry. Winds began northerly and shifted to westerly. Clear views of surrounding peaks but very few banners of wind blown snow seen from a distance. However, up close, windward slopes were actively being scoured with irregular deposition patterns observed on leeward slopes. Surface hoar was being blown over and redistributed by winds.

I checked for facets under the thick rain crust in the top 1/3 of the snowpack. On NE/E aspects at 9000ft, 8600ft, and 8300ft, I performed Extended Column Tests that all propagated. All required hard taps, including one that propagated on the very last tap. 

At the same locations, I also looked at facets on the ground. They were dry, 2mm, and 4f hard. The snowpack above them was quite strong, except the other faceted layer described above. Additional thin faceted layers between crusts were discontinuous.