Game—Togwotee Pass

Traveled up to the the Game Ridge area and got stuck a few times, but found some decent wind-sheltered riding. Recent storm snow has consolidated into denser riding, around 20 cm (8-10 inches) thick. While probing consistently above 9,400 feet, the total snow height was around 140-160 cm (4.5-5 feet), which is fairly shallow for this late in the season. New/old interface consisted of a 1-2 mm layer of NSFs on N-E aspects and a small melt-freeze crust with facets on S-W aspects.  This interface produced easy results (ECTN7-10 on both aspects ~9,500')  but did not propagate. Otherwise, the weakest snow interface was around 80 cm (the bottom 1-2 feet of the snowpack). This snow was primarily faceted/rounding facets, growing bigger in size (and softer/weaker) as one moves lower in the snowpack. No other noteworthy results in the snowpit test, though any time change occurs on this snowpack (a large storm, high winds, or intense solar/warm temps), slopes should be regarded very carefully. Other than during storm cycles, the structure at Togwotee remains generally poor but does not produce very apparent signs of instability and is hard to read.  

Small cornice-triggered avalanches and creekside avalanches noted at the new/old interface,