Mini Gash

Overall, we found dust on crust conditions at Mini Gash today with limited signs of instability. There was 2-3 inches of new snow at upper elevations and a trace at the trailhead. The crust below was supportable on sunny aspects and breakable on northerly aspects. Some steeper upper elevation northerlies were not crusted. The strong sunshine today warmed up the new snow on sunny aspects and they were wet by the afternoon. We observed some very small rollerballs, but there generally wasn't enough new snow to create a wet loose avalanche hazard. The new snow was wind affected in many areas and we found some isolated small drifts that were over 6" deep and produced stubborn cracking. The highest peaks could have some very small wind slabs, but overall there wasn't enough snow to make a significant wind slab hazard. We dug a pit on an upper elevation northeast aspect and found a strong snowpack structure. The persistent slab problem is likely isolated and trending towards unreactive. There are still some significant cornices along upper elevation ridgelines which could become a significant concern again as temperatures rise this weekend. 

We dug a snowpit on a northeast aspect at 7600 ft. We found a generally strong snowpack structure. There was a 100 cm (~40") thick hard slab resting above rounding facets. The facets were relatively strong and did not produce any results in an extended column test (ECTX).