Found a couple concerning layers today at 6200 ft on a NE facing 35 degree slope. Total snowpack 130-140 cm. Dug 2 pits 50 ft apart and did ECT's with similar but different results. Good old spatial variability! The recent temperature crust/facet sandwich was 15 cm down (less new snow than Canyon Ck) but the snow above wasn't slabbed up enough to propagate. ECTN 5 and ECTP 15 respectively. The most concerning layer was about 75-80 cm down and consisted of 5 cm of faceted junk (starting to round and strengthen) above an old crust likely from November [This depth consistent w 12/9 crust throughout the region - Forecaster]. The pit out in the open produced ECT24 Q2 but the pit closer to trees and partially sheltered produced ECTP11 Q1 with lots of energy upon release. We hypothesized that being closer to a grove of trees allowed the old facets to be preserved better? Anyway we stuck to small terrain and sledded and skied fun snow (although shallow around rocks and stumps) on short NE and East facing pitches and observed no instabilities. Seems as though being in the wrong spot at the wrong time could go bad in a hurry.
