snowing most of the day with light to moderate winds in the trees. did one hand shear and ski cut (no result) before skiing and dug a pit around 5800' on NE aspect. only dug to below the recent rain event, the crust failed on isolation. there was 8-12" of fairly consistent low density snow sitting on top of the crust. this storm snow did not make much of a slab in the pit and broke apart during the ECT. skiing low angle trees yielded no signs of instability. plenty of settling and whomping while setting the skin track.