Observations from Mt. Rose

Toured up Mt. Rose today.  Mostly cloudy until ~11:30 when it transitioned to mostly sunny. Stepping out of the skin track we found a few inches of soft surface snow on N/NE aspects above a supportable base, with sun-exposed S/SE aspects developing a thin sun crust by late morning.  Winds were quiet for most of the climb. Once we gained the ridge there were light/moderate SE winds depositing a little snow on N/NE aspects, although there was not a lot of snow available for transport due to thin snow coverage on the ridge and south slopes.

Dug a pit at 10,000 feet on a wind-loaded, 35-40 degree, NE slope just below the ridgeline. There was a wind lip but no overhanging cornice, and the wind deposits only extended ~50 feet downslope. Total snow depth was ~285cm. Top 20cm was 4-finger hard wind slab and storm snow from Wednesday's storm. Below that was ~80cm of 1-finger hard slab from last weekend's storm, with *slightly* lower density snow about 100cm down, probaby from before the storm warmed up on Sunday. No obvious weak layers in top 160cm of snowpack.

Performed an extended column test with ECTN-24 results. The top 20cm of storm snow/wind deposit collapsed slightly under the front half of the shovel only (Q3). It failed on a very thin layer of sugary snow, possibly surface facets from before Wednesday's snow. The fracture did not propagate accross the column at all, and the snow under the back half of the shovel remained in place. 

Ski cuts and stomps on the test slope did not produce any cracking or signs of instability. On the descent we found a few inches of cold unconsolidated snow on a supportable base in shaded N/NE aspects.