Red Creek

Toured up Red Creek to 8300'. There was roughly 2 feet of snow at the road, increasing to around 3 feet by 7000 ft and then anywhere from 4 to 6+ feet above 8000'. Snow depths were consistently 5 to 6 feet above 7500 feet on the ascent ridge. Steep southerly aspects that held less snow early season were 3 to 4 feet deep. A melt-freeze crust from 3 days ago was observed up to roughly 7500 feet under about 10 inches of new snow at that elevation.

In general, where I dug - 7500' NE, 8250' SE, 8300' NE - there is a right-side-up snowpack. I did not get any propagation in pits.

• 7500' NE, HS 73 inches (185 cm) - ECTN20 down 20 inches (50cm), ECTX. I only dug down 47 inches (120 cm). Probing revealed about 10 inches of facets at the base.
• 8250' SE, HS 79 inches (200 cm) - ECTN15 down 20 inches (50 cm), ECTX. Dug to the ground. 2 crusts found the upper crust was down 53 inches (135cm) and not reactive (PST Arr 100/135). Moist facets in the bottom 14 inches. I did not test the facet layer as it is 6+ feet from the surface.
• 8300' NE, HS 83 inches (210 cm) - ECTN12 down 18 inches (45 cm), ECTX. Only dug down 59 inches (150cm). This pit was just below a ridge and probably has a little wind loading contributing to the depth.

Great visibility today. Only the one observed wind slab avalanche below. I'm guessing it was natural, but I can't be sure, as there were some older tracks in the area. A few very small loose snow avalanches were observed in very steep terrain. I watched a skier ski an east-facing ridge from 9k to 8k, dipping into steep southeast-facing terrain off the ridge with only minimal sluffing (see picture).

Almost no wind-affected snow up to 8200 feet. Above that, exposed areas showed signs of drifting and firm pillows. No cracking or collapsing was observed while skinning along the ridge on wind-affected snow.