Observation: Garden City Canyon

A mild, moody day in the mountains. Temperatures were quite warm, and the new snow was sticky. Glop was an issue, it was sticking to the scales on my skis which made skinning difficult. I did not observe any cracking or collapsing, but I also did not travel in avalanche terrain. I dug a pit on a NE aspect at 8500 feet. HS was 83, with 10cm of new snow. The top 1cm was graupel. The structure is very poor. My results were: ECTN3, Q1 down 10cm on a crust/facet layer below the new snow. No propagation. The sky began clearing around 1300. Overall, it was a nice day to be outside and the skiing was good. Coverage on solar aspects below 8k is low.