Tragedy Springs

We rode out from Tragedy Springs parking area around 1030. Right from the get go there was obviously surface hoar everywhere along with, a thin breakable crust just below the surface below at 8000'. Above 8200' the crust had disappeared and the snow below the surface hoar was ~30-35cm of F-hard new snow from yesterday's storm. As we rode around all day and  would come a breaking point I would check the HS and there is anywhere from 150-200cms of snow in this area above 8000'.  Continuing on to higher elevations there was no signs of any instabilty from side hilling small steeper features or any cracking at all. I stopped to dig a pit @ 8800' on a NE aspect and had no unstable results within my pit tests but did find the PWL at the bottom of the snowpack at 180cms and it is showing signs of gaining strength but still 4F hard and loose. As the day progressed and the ambient air temperature rose, tree drippings and melt off was more abundant on solar aspects causing tree bombs in some areas. Once we got up in elevation and had clear views we looked at Mokelumne Peak and Deadwood Peak area and there was no signs of any recent avalanches in these areas.Despite the warm up throughout the day the surface hoar remained in most all areas and was still intact and standing when we left around 1600. 

I dug a pit on a NE aspect @ 8800' to investage the PWLs within the snow pack and check the stability within the most recent snow. The HS at this location was 185cm. I dug all the way to the ground, the DH was definitely wet and compressible but was still 4F hard and felt loose. In the top 100cm of the snowpack there was a couple newly formed melt freeze crusts, One was thin and breakable about 40cm down, the second was at 80cm down and was 2cms thick, P-hard and breakable. There was no signs of of faceting on either top or bottom of this layer but is something to look at in the future within this area. I completed 2x compression tests within the top 100cms and got some results but Q2-Q3 at best.

Surface hoar was widespread from the truck @ 8000' and observed all day long within this terrain on all aspects and elevations up to ~9000'.