Mary's Nipple

We were curious about northerly aspects harboring old, weak snow on today's tour. Southerly aspects prior to this storm held either little to no snow or consisted primarily of a melt-freeze crust near the ground. Over half of the snowpack consists of snow that fell in the last 48 hours. Depths probed on S-SW aspects ranged from 30cm (all new snow on rock) to 60cm (on old MF crust). Depths on northerlies ranged from 60-80cm.  Our pit, ~9,800 feet on a N aspect, had around 75cm (2.5 feet) of snow, the bottom 15cm of which is larger faceted grains. We performed ~5 tests, all of which propagated on facets near the ground (ETCP16/17). The continuity of this weak snow will vary from place to place but will be found primarily at upper elevations on N-facing terrain. Places where this structure exists across all the zones will trend more unstable as new snow settles, with more wind and snow forecasted.