Elephants Hump

We went to Elephants Hump to monitor snowpack conditions.  The upper snowpack consists of weak faceted snow and a series of rain crusts.  In wind protected below treeline areas, the snowpack appeared to be weaker here than in other locations around the forecast region.  Faceted snow is also developing in near treeline terrain where wind buff snow previously existed.  The upper snowpack structure would become worrisome when/if we receive a future substantial storm load.  The strong NE winds were blowing light amounts of snow along exposed ridges on some of the higher peaks in the area.  Locally, limited snow existed for transport and very little blowing snow was observed.