Toured into marion lake, finding several feet of new snow and very slow going. We saw evidence of innumerable natural slides on all slopes and aspects, that probably failed two days ago, as the crowns and debris were nearly completely buried by new snow. Snowed most of the day with generally light winds. No evidence of wind effect on the south slope we were on.
Dug one pit, ~6300', SE aspect. Probe depth ranged from 160-200 cm. Of note, no freezing rain crust was found here!
ECTN 3 @ 20 cm, ECTN 16 @ 60 cm, ECTN 19 85 cm, ECTP 25 120 cm (about 5 cm under the thanksgiving crust, failing on bountiful facets). We graded this propagation at Q2. Clean shear but it did not pop or slide off the column on its own.
The attached pictures show the thanksgiving crust buried and the result of the ECT.
