Limestone Ridge

We sled to Limestone Ridge today to dig a pit and check out the conditions. We saw no recent avalanche activity. It was -18 at the ridgetop with a light southwest wind. We dug a pit on a fairly wind-exposed NW slope at 2200 m to check for surface hoar, and found it down 50 cm. We also had a test result (ECTP 24 down 50 cm on size 6 Surface Hoar). We have found the persistent weak layer on all aspects and elevations but in our travels to date (generally treeline open terrain). In our snowpack tests, we continually get results on the Persistent Weak Layer (PWL) but are not seeing any new avalanche activity. We are finding open terrain features, where snow is more consolidated, to be more reactive in snowpack tests. There are many areas where the snow is still unconsolidated from the cold temperatures faceting the upper snowpack. We will watch for these unconsolidated layers to settle when temperatures warm up and it forms a slab.