Elephant's Hump

I went out to Elephant's Hump this morning. The snow was steadily falling and there was ~2-3 inches of new snow on top of the ~5-7cm Christmas rain crust. The crust was still moist and was providing good bonding at this interface. No formal pIt tests or ski cuts produce any results on the new snow. In the morning the winds were light not producing much wind transport. By 1130 moderate gusts became more frequent and the wind continued to increase to strong by 1300 producing strong to intense loading on leeward aspects. I walked along a wind drift feature and had easy results within the soft wind slab cracking an release. By the time I left 6 inches of total snow was on the ground.

I dug a pit on a N aspect at 8100', HS was 110cm. There was ~10cm of F hard snow on the surface. Just below the new snow is the Christmas rain crust was getting buried. This crust ~7cm thick and P+ hard at this location. The crust was still moist and allowed for good bonding at this interface of new and old snow, showing no signs of instability. I dug all the way to the ground and complete a couple ECTs and had two ECTP17/19 on the basal facets below. The snow continued to stack up by the time I left at1300.