Mt. Blackmore Varying ECT Scores

We toured up to the Mt. Blackmore ridgeline today. Near Mt. Blackmore most of the snow was wind affected, and today’s winds at the ridgetops were not blowing snow around because there is little snow left for the wind to transport. We dug three pits on different aspects and elevation bands, and we didn’t find surface hoar in any of these pits.The pits we dug had facets near the surface all the way to the bottom of the snowpack, and it was capped with a 1-3” of wind-packed snow. We were able to get an ECTP18 on facets above a crust 10” below the surface on a SE aspect at 9,500’. And, we got an ECTP18 on a NE aspect at 9,800’ in a shallow, wind stripped area below Mt. Blackmore’s ridgeline. This was in a layer of facets 2 feet below the surface. We were not able to replicate these results in either snowpit. Buried weak layers are getting harder to trigger, and these pits showed how finding a thin spot on a slope could still trigger an avalanche.