Tam Benchmark

Today Joe and I road up to the NNE shoulder of Tam Benchmark to about 9300'  in a clump of small conifers, we dug a pit.  Winds were sustained 30+mph out of the SW. Height of snow was 150 +- cm.  A thin 3 cm Temp/Wind crust was on top of a relatively right side up snow pack, down to 120 cm rain crust and under that to the ground 30 cm +- of varying faceted sugar snow.  Our pit column tests results were 2x CTH and 1 ECTP.  All were Q1 "Sudden Collapse" fracture quality.  This follows suit to what we are seeing on the surface.  On N shaded aspects, our snowpack is sitting on a bed of basal facets. Now these facets may be Stubborn/ harder to trigger and initiate a collapse, but when triggered the slab will most certainly propagate. This falls under the "Spooky Moderate" category, not your typical Sierra snow pack. Be safe out there and keep it chill. Its not open season, yet.