Tour on hidden peak

Toured up mostly east facing slopes through fog until 8800ft when we rose above the fog into the warm sun. Temps were generally in the mid to upper 20's but there was snow melt observed on solar aspects above the sun. Surface hoar was observed between 8700 and 8900ft likely due to the freezing fog. Crystal growth on trees was also noted in this elevation. After 3pm all melting snow had re-frozen. I dug one pit at 8800ft east facing 25deg slope. Temp was 27deg F. Depth was 400cm. Sky was clear, wind was calm. Ski pen was mid cuff, boot pen was to the knee. Snow was winter, cold snow. Snowpack was primarily stellars and right side up from hand hardness to pencil hardness down to the 1/9 rain layer which started at about 245cm down and finished at about 205cm down. My pit ended about 280 cm down. Everything below the rain crust was pencil hardness broken stellars and rounds. I did not observe any facets at the interfaces to the rain layer. Rather is was mostly scintillating rounds or melt/freeze type rounds and stellars. Out of curiosity I isolated a column and performed a compression test in a 30cmx30cmx280cm column. I observed CT6NP at 15cm down, CT13P Q2 25 cm down. The column failed fairly easily on the rain layer with hand sheer after several hard taps beyond the CT standard. Overall, good stability was observed.