We toured in the upper portion of Mill D North Fork today. The weather included overcast skies (OVC) with light snowfall (S1) which increased throughout our tour to approximately an inch an hour (~S2). There were brief periods of graupel as well. Winds were primarily out of the northwest and starting picking up above 8600'. We observed shooting cracks and some minor sluffing in the storm snow, especially within the steeper areas and test slopes in this zone.

We dug a quick test pit on a northwest facing slope at 9200'. We found 5cm of fresh snow on top of a wind affected layer. There was a crust at approximately 45-43cm, a weak layer below it from 43-27cm, another crust at 27-25cm, followed by weak facets (persistent weak layer) to the base of the snowpack. Our extended column test result was ECTP12 (crack initiation and propagation) within the persistent weak layer. Additional loading from the storms throughout the weekend will likely make slopes with a PWL extremely reactive.

The low angle north facing slopes at the mid and upper elevations skied nicely and the tree exit in this zone were not as bad as expected. This made for a pleasant day out in the backcountry!