Rounding Facets, stable snow and blustery conditions on Castle Peak

Today we toured around the Cathedral Bowl and towards Frog Lake area. Weather was blustery and overcast for most of the day with blue holes from time to time and a few snow showers that did not accumulate. Winds were moderate for most of the day from the SW, and while wind transport was witnessed, slab development was not in the areas we traveled through. Snow was mostly variable in exposed terrain, but sheltered terrain harbored smooth surface faceted snow. We dug a pit on an East aspect at 8,000' with a HS of 116cm, the top 15cm consisted of Near surface facted crystals, then about 70cm of well rounded grains with denisities going from 4F-P sitting on top of the Dec 11 PWL. This layer had density of 4F and while the grains are still relatively large they were rounding out well. We performed a compression test that failed on the 17th tap on the Dec 11 PWL, which we followed up with an ECT and had no propagation results. Overall we had great stability on all aspects and every test slope we targeted produced no results. Boot penetration wasnt very deep in most areas, although very hollow areas "trap doored" us up to our waists where rocks and stumpes exsisted beneath the surface.