Low elevation snow observations

We toured into low angle and low elevation trees on the north flanks of Schallenberger ridge today to continue to monitor how our snowpack is changing with our increased snow load. Stabbing your pole into the snow on the skintrack it was easy to feel the different layers, densities and various crust layers that have now formed. In this low elevation terrain we found that our coverage is improving nicely, rocks being mostly covered with a small amount of lingering tree and natural obstacles still lurking. On our tour up we only heared 1 whumpf and observed minimal cracking along the way. Hasty hand bits indicated a poor stability factor and several would fail during isolaton with a ski pole. 

We dug into the snow at 6524' elevation to get a closer look, our pit revealed 42cm of new snow ontop of a rain layer, and a seperate rain / crust layer at 55-54 cm down. The snow below these layers was distincly moist and heavy. we had a thick crust layer at 49 - 44.5 cm down and below that we found roudning faceted grains. We conducted a few stability tests, all indicated what we have been seeing and hear - poor stability. ECTP 18 and CT 17 SP, these results were achieved twice in the same location each. We also conducted a hasty Rutschblock test for fun and got a RB3.

Stability remains poor, on the bright side stability tests are quite clear in their results!