Mt Ellis Pits and Video

We skinned up to Mt. Ellis summit today. We dug our first pit on the approach at 7,700’. The first pit on a NE aspect was thin (HS = 80 cm/2.5 ft) with an ECTN 11 and 22 in the top half of the snowpack. In this shallow snow we saw depth hoar and facets at the ground. We dug our second pit near the Burn below the summit of Mt. Ellis (8,100’). This NE aspect had 2-3 ft of snow (85 cm), and we had an ECTX.

Both pits showed a shallow snowpack with facets at the bottom. Moving forward, the thin snowpack will be more susceptible to faceting. Also, the poor structure of this snowpack (dense snow on top of facets) could be a concern with more snow. These two things show us that we should continue to assess the snowpack around Mt. Ellis.