Stevens Peak

I toured up the gully between Red Lake Peak and Steven's Peak today. I was mostly curious about the buried facets and wanted to see how they might be different depnding on elevation. At 8000' there was only 105 cms of snow on a north west facing slope below tree line. The snowpack here largely consisted of crusts and facets. The crusts were strong and the facets were weak. At the ground the old facets were moist and easily clumped  together.  

After skinning about 700' higher I found a much differents snow pack. This pit location was a NE aspect at 8700' in near tree line terrain. Height of snow (HS) was 197 cms with about 90 cms of new snow on top of the old crusts and facets. This new snow slab was strong. After about a foot of fist hard snow it was mostly 1 finger hard to the first crust and facet combo. I tried to isolate a PST and test this first facet layer but I broke my pole after attaching my saw to it and trying to cut the back of the column.  Darn it! 

Winds were interesting with multiple swirling "dust devils" in near tree line terrain.