Carson Pass

While it's possible to travel on snow in this area, bushes are still a challenge in a few spots and rocks lurk. Prior to Satuday's new snow much of the terrain here had very little snow on the ground, but the additional snow and wind have created a snowpack supportable to ski travel. 

Coverage has improved but it is still thin in this area. During the first half of the day winds were transporting large amounts of snow. The new snow from yesterday has been beat up by the wind and is quite supportable above tree line. I observed facets at the ground in one location, adjacent to a recent natural avalanche (~9300'). In the other locations I dug, I found facets that were not particularly  sugary and appear to have been previously wet (8700'). I got an ECTN in the top of the facet layer at this pit. In a different spot, (9300') below Round Top, I dug to the ground where I thought old snow would be found, but I only encountered new snow. Friends I encountered described a natural avalanche below the west Sister. I was on the ridge looking at the Sisters but couldn't see it myself. Based on their description it sounded roughly similar to what I saw on Elephant's Back.