Partly cloudy, temperature around 28 degrees. No wind.
Observation: Douglas Island
Location: Mount Troy
Took the well-traveled skin track up toward Mt. Troy, and decided to dig just above treeline, at 2,071 feet elevation, just to the left (northwest?) of the track.
Weather
Snow surface
Settling powder (Eaglecrest current weather conditions list 10" new snow in last 48 hours at summit, and less in last 24 hours).
Snowpack
Dug a pit and did a shovel shear test, compression test, and extended column test. The only weak layer I observed was around 45cm from the surface. No propagation during extended column test (though I was dealing with possible repercussions of devil's club!). Noted visual layers at 15cm from surface, 20cm down, about 45cm down, and 55cm down. Dug to about 90cm, hit a hard layer just beneath there (about 95cm?), but didn't dig deeper due to brush emerging. Snow seemed safe for skiing. Not much wind impact noted at this elevation, though observed some wind scouring when skiing at abound 2,400 feet elevation.
Slope where I dug was northwest facing, about 38 degrees.
112720Snowpit2
112720Snowpit1