Quick report
We had another sunny and clear day in the Taylor Fork today.
Riding along the Sage Basin Headwall, we noticed chunks of cornices that fell a few days ago.
On southerly aspects (SE over SW), a 1" thick melt freeze crust had formed yesterday, and we observed some rollerballs as a sign of wet snow from yesterday. Today, the temperatures were cold enough, and wet snow wasn't an issue.
In our first pit on a south-west aspect near the wilderness boundary, we found a frozen percolation channel that must have formed yesterday. The melt water was traveling deeper into the snowpack and started pooling on one of the melt freeze crusts in the mid snowpack. Our ECT results showed no propagation (ECTN15 and ECTN25). The facets at the bottom had started to round were moist.
Our second pit was on a northerly aspect. We didn't see propagation in the ECT (ECTN13, ECTN29). To test the persistent weak layer near the ground (2-3 mm facets), we performed a Propagation Saw Test on that layer (PST32/140End).
We found surface hoar on top of both pits and also while riding in many locations in all elevations we travelled through today.
In wind exposed areas along ridges the winds were blowing strong in the afternoon, but not transporting much snow.