Fresh tracks in a shallow snowpack

Looks like the snowpack is slowly improving in the Alexander Creek area. We saw no recent avalanches and had no shooting cracks while riding despite testing numerous cut banks at lower elevations (1700-1500m). We dug a test pit on a west facing slope at treeline around 2100m (see photos) and found a total snowpack of only 80cm. When we stepped off our sleds the foot penetration was pretty much to ground due to the weak sugary facetted snow. We did and extended column test and had it fail on the 16th tap on a deep persistent layer of large depth hoar crystals about 30cm from the ground. We found the best riding to be in sheltered trees at upper elevations. The alpine was quite wind affected with variable snow making the riding less fun there.