Mount Beattie January 5 2018

We dug a pit on a low angle (20 degree), treed northeast-facing slope. Snow pack was about 150 cm deep. We couldn't find any clear evidence of the mid-December surface hoar layer, but did find two fairly obvious thin crusts (late November?) about 100 cm down, with about 5 cm of separation between them. The snow became noticeably more granular at this level and below. The upper snowpack was quite firm and consolidated. Column test produced failure at 18/30 (i.e. 8th hit from the elbow) at the crust-level. We suspect that the test would have been more reactive on a steeper slope. Temperatures near zero at mid day.