First day out at the Microwave

Today was our first day out at the Microwave. It was sunny with moderate north-west winds throughout the day. We probed in several places and found 100-115cm of snow. We dug a snow pit on a North-East aspect at 1600 meters and found 115cm of snow. In a compression test, we produced moderate, sudden planar results on a surface hoar layer 30 cm below the snow surface. As the snow load increases on this layer, it could become more reactive. The recent wind has scoured the alpine, but areas sheltered from the wind are still holding good quality riding. We observed no new avalanches.