Toured in the MIddle Fork today for the first time of the season and found a familiar sight- and effort- to get into the Snow Zone.
We spotted a 2' old crown once up in the drainage that was on a steeper roll over, just below 6000' (s facing). We tested some steeper slopes on the south-facing ascent and noted small sluffing and some small corner cracks on our skintrack. No whoomph-ing or shooting cracks, but the day was calm and the 6-8" of low density surface snow ranged from unconsolidated to just slightly wind affected up on the ridgeline.
We dug a pit at 6800' on a S facing slope. HS 185 / Results were ECTN12 down 12cm, ECTN24 down 35cm, and with extra hard force we found partial propogation 55 cm down. This deeper layer most likely failed on the Dec. 9th rain crust.
At our highpoint, around 7200 feet, we did notice a 1 inch wind skin developing on exposed ridgelines that were receiving wind loading and were starting to get sensitive.
Overall, the wind was calm today and the temperature hovered right around freezing. The clouds were high enough to give us good visibilty of All the bush in the surrounding zones protecting the potential for skiing above. The south facing slopes we were skiing on (from 4200' down low to 7200' up top) never received any direct sunlight, as the day stayed almost entirely overcast.
