Pea Gravel Ridge

It was a high price of admission to enter the Pea Gravel area due to low snow cover below 5000 ft. Once I gained the ridge, I generally found 30 cm of recent snow over the 2/7 crust. Snowpack test highlighted a couple of potential weak layers in the upper snowpack above this crust. These didn't seem too problematic outside of drifted terrain today, but they'll be worth tracking as new snow trickles in. Once I crested into the open slopes around 5800 ft, signs of recent drifting became more apparent. These wind slabs generally appeared stubborn and wet loose instabilities seemed like the primary avalanche concern below 7000 ft on W-S-SE aspects. 

We have about 30-40 cm of recent new snow over the 2/7 crust. The new snow accompanied a warm front, so the surface snow is often dense and resting over softer snow that snowpack tests highlight particularly well. Due to rough lower elevation travel, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to hunt down weak snow at the 2/13 interface. In the few places I dug, I couldn't find buried surface hoar, but I did find some lightly faceted snow above the 2/7 and more well-developed facets below the 2/7 crust. The 2/7 is 5 cm thick and boot supportable, so I was more focused on the recent snow resting above the crust.