Quick report
We toured up Middle Ridge to evaluate skiing a northern aspect off the ridge. Weather was clear and sunny, high 20’s, winds light. We observed widespread signs of wind-affected snow above 7500’ along ridgeline as anticipated. We dug a pit ~12:30PM at 8078’ near top of run on N facing aspect. We were curious if the north side of ridge was also wind loaded. Just stepping and digging into upper layer of snow felt like wind slab. Test results indicated sensitivity ~20cm down near layer of 4F snow sandwiched between 1F layers that may not be well bonded. ECTP23down23RP. We opted not to ski this slope. We instead skied mid elevation trees on E and N-NE aspects (off Middle & Phat Ridges) in variable snow quality. Some sun crust present on eastern aspects. Also of note, at around 4pm, 7100’ meadow between Phat and Middle Ridge observed patches of 1”thick sun crust with layer of surface hoar on top. This may be an issue if present on steeper slopes and buried in today’s new snow.