Blue Creek Saddle

I observed a supportive melt freeze crust varying in thickness from a half inch to 6 inches on all aspects in the morning.  On South aspects, where the crust was the thickest, I found wet snow grains to a depth of about 1 foot below the MFcr.  There were many small wet loose avalanches to be obsered in Norway Basin on East, South, and West aspects with widespread runnels from the last week of warm temperatures (see photo). 

My main goal of the day was to hunt for buried surface hoar on sheltered north terrain.  I headed to the Blue Creek Saddle zone to look for BSH, where Mike and Killian reported finding this layer last weekend.  I dug 3 snow pits (2 on North aspects at 7800' and 1 on a NW aspect at 8,000'.  I did find cold snow under a thin melt-freeze crust in these locations and a layer of graupel 15 cm/6" from the surface that produced resistant planar compression test results.  I did not find the BSH in any of my pits, but it would still be advised to look for it on any shady aspect before committing to avalanche terrain.  

By 1 PM,  below 7500, West, South, and East aspects had become unsupportable and I was sinking up to my boot tops in unconsolidated snow.  

No Buried Surface Hoar found in 3 pits that I dug at 7800' (2 on a North aspect and 1 on a Northwest aspect).