Boulders on Becker

We started the day around 7300', skies were clear and temps were above freezing. As the day went on, cloud cover increased and temps stayed well above freezing. Winds were only noticed later in the day on the top of Becker, it was light with moderate gusts out of the S-SW. Due to warming on south aspects there was no transporting snow observed during this time. 

 Along the tour on the ridge to Becker, snow on the southerly aspect was warming, cohesive, and produced pinwheels and rollerballs on ski cuts. On the northside of the ridge, snow was dry and loose on the surface. There were some areas that were wind effected from yesterday's NE-E wind event but was only on exposed portions of the ridge. Targeting steeper smaller non consequential north facing features showed no signs of instabilties from ski cuts. At 1330 I dug a pit around 8000' on a due north aspect, within my pit profile both the Dec.11th and Dec. 25th layer did not produce any results on the ECT soring an ECTX. The top 10cm of snow within my pit was a mix of rimmed and defragmented grains that was reactive in my compression test scoring a CT14 Q2. Due to flat light it was hard to determine if there was surface hoar at this interface or if this was the new snow failing due to lack of settlement time. Much of Becker's terrain is still abundant with boulders and unburied obstacles. We chose to stay within the trees and avoid the big open drainages. Within the trees on the descent there was good powder skiing all the way to the lake.