Toured up to the Marion/Dickey Ridge from Dickey Creek and dug a NE facing pit at ~6,500'. HS 240cm, ECTN 40cm down that looked like a settling storm slab on top of less dense snow. This only broke under the width of my shovel. Estimated 1-2'' of new snow overnight. Otherwise, the pit was right side up, strong, and well bonded. Could not find the groundhog day crust in the top 150cm in our location. There was no recent wind effect noticed on either side of the ridge with massive tree bombs waiting to drop. There's plenty of loose surface snow available for transport this weekend. On the descent to Marion Lake, there was a period of serious rime/freezing mist on S faces. I had to stop to wipe ice from my goggles twice. It was not enough to create a crust but seemed unusual. Graupel returned follwed by heavy snow on our way out. Winds were calm all day. Visibility was decent, and we did not observe any avalanche activity. We enjoyed great settled pow skiing on slopes to 40 degrees.
