Basalt

Toured on northerly terrain off Chikamin Ridge Road. South and SE aspects had a 5mm MF crust on all exposed surfaces. Northerly aspects held cold snow, with minimal wind effect. There was widespread collapsing in the lower drainages, below appx 4500ft, likely failing on buried surface hoar that developed during inversion periods of the January drought. No collapsing was experienced above tis elevation band. We had isolated cracking in new snow at higher elevations near 6k. Examined the JDL at 5400ft on NE aspect, HS240, with JDL at 190, below which we found a snowpack largely consisting of 1F decomposing/rounding facets.. CT10RP @205 and ECTP8 @205 on what appeared to be a midstorm layer composed of rounding stellars with some faceting, suspect from a mid-storm temperature gradient (?clearing) on 2/1 or 2/2 perhaps. Great views of Garland, Rampart and Old Gib today, with overcast skies and short S1 flurries

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