Sunny Side Hatch

Without the influence of wind at middle elevations, many shallow southerly slopes have become weak sugary snow top to bottom. In isolated places, I could find older, stiff snow in the middle of the snowpack separating the upper snowpack from weak snow near the ground. In stability tests, I had fair to poor results, finding a more defined and reactive (still fairly stubborn), weak layer near the ground on north-facing slopes.

Climbing the eastern and southern end of the powder pimple felt like the definition of variable snowpack. In some places, the whole snowpack is faceted to the ground, capped by a thin wind crust from last night's winds. In other places, old wind slabs separated weak snow near the ground from any newer snow above, although these too were soft and faceting. The height of the snow also varied quite a bit, where previous winds have drifted snow, ranging from 75-100+ cm. I dug on a SE-facing slope below the shoulder of the pimple at about 3400', I had ECTP26 results just above the ground results, HS 75. 

Along the ridge, I dug on the northern slope at about 3600' that was littered with exposed rocks, and found barely covered rocks, a more complex faceted snowpack near the ground. Here, I purposefully looked for a relatively shallow spot. I had ECTP17 results down about ~45cm, HS 107, failing near the ground above old compacted/compressed larger facets below.