Lolo Pass - G Spot

There was around 1.5-2 feet of recent snow in the Lolo Pass area. It generally appeared right side up and unreactive today. I only found some very minor cracking on one lightly wind affected roll. I suspect that at higher, more wind affected elevations, there are likely more wind slab avalanche concerns. The primary concern today at these less wind affected middle and lower elevations was wet loose avalanches in the sunny and warm weather. The surface of the recent snow easily got wet today on most aspects except well shaded northerlies. I did not travel in any avalanche terrain today, but I observed rollerballs and wet snow that easily pushed in widening sheets. I suspect that steeper terrain would have produced wet loose avalanches. 

I dug a snowpit on an east aspect at 6000 ft. I found a generally right side up snowpack, without major layers of concern. There was 55cm (22") of recent snow resting on a couple of different crusts. The lowest crust was quite thick and stout. There was a thin layer of well preserved graupel buried at the interface between the recent snow and the crust. However, it did not appear reactive and did not produce propagating snowpit tests (ECTN26). There was also a minor, non propagating extended column test result on a density change in the recent snow, 50 cm deep (ECTN21). The surface snow was moist when I was digging in the afternoon.