Observation: Hidden Canyon

Dug a pit on a N/NE facing slope right above Lane's Leap en route to Promise Land in Upper BCC at 9,610 ft. Slope angle was 30-32 degrees, temperatures were 28 degrees F with cloudy/broken skies and winds blowing strongest from S/SW. Ran a hand hardness, ECT, CT, and Shovel Shear tests. Snow depth was 170 cm, making this one of the largest November/early December snow depths I can remember. On the ECT, there was some noticeable movement on elbow tap 5 (total 15), and full propagation observed at ECT21 right above the facet layer sitting 70cm above the ground. Video shows the slab we pulled out after all ECT taps. Hand hardness test (pic attached) showed the top 30-35 cm of new snow from this past Thursday/Friday at 4F. Right below that the hard wind slab was most consistently 1F (pencil hardness at 100-115 cm above ground). And below that...some rotten facets from the Nov warming period -- yikes. On our CT, there were collapses on CT11 with a stronger collapse on CT15 at the facet/slab boundary (again, 70cm above the ground). Sugary facets from the November warming period range from 1-2mm in size. Shovel Shear yielded no signficant results (ran the test mostly for the interest of study).

BOTTOMLINE: while it was great to have a stable snowpack for November with the ability to step into bigger lines, it is now time to back off once again! In regards to recent avalanches, observations, and our pit findings, these avalanches are nothing to mess around with. The snowpack seems like it will only get weaker with cranked SW winds and new snow on the way. The wind slab is up to 4 feet in some range locations sitting atop very weak facets.