Test Pit and Observation on Mount Blackmore

My partners and I began a tour today at Hyalite Reservoir with a plan to ski the E and N faces of Mount Blackmore, but with the mindset of keeping expectations low and moving slowly giving time for observations and discussion. 

On our way in, just off the trail in an opening in the forest at 8600' on a NW aspect with an incline of 29 deg we chose to dig a test pit mostly to see if a faceted weak layer might be present on the shady aspects we were planning to ski. The pit showed a fully right side up snowpack with the snow progressively going from F hardness new snow to 1F snow towards the ground and a depth of 110cm. The snow was not wind loaded on the surface at our pit location and our ECT yielded an ECTX and no obvious signs of instability. As we climbed towards Blackmore and subsequently ascended the NE ridge, there were occasional gusts on the ridge that were actively blowing snow. The ascent towards the Blackmore summit only presented small shooting cracks and considerable cohesiveness in the surface snow in an isolated pocket towards the summit. 

We opted to ski both the E and N faces and did not notice any instabilities while skiing the lines themselves.