A bit bare in Barnes

Gear shakedown for the Field Team! Our first day in the field was overcast, with some very light snow, light winds from the northeast and - 4 at 1900 m Visibility was poor, but we did get a few looks into the alpine and did not observe any new avalanche activity. There was roughly 70 cm of total snowpack depth at 1900 m. The top 30 cm was unconsolidated and soft in sheltered terrain. This sits on a supportive melt freeze crust buried on November 20th. Below this a series of crusts continue to ground. We suspect there is wind affected snow at upper elevations and in open terrain features. We unloaded on snow at Corbin Staging and made it up to the meadow at Barnes. Very little coverage on the monkey trail, but the crust keeps you from hitting ground.