Snowpack Observation at Mt. Lola

We went out today to see how the snowpack was setting up and how much the rain had affected the current snowpack. Our plan was to ride around the Mt. Lola area and gain some elevation to see the difference of the snowpack based on the rainline. At the trailhead and through the first leg of our ride we encountered 3-6" of new snow sitting on top of wet, saturated snow from the rain the night before. It wasnt until we got above 7500' that we noticed a dramatic change in snow depth and moisture content, it was evident there was no where near as much rain at that elevation than lower locations. Handpits throughout the morning revealed the Dec 1 facets in most places matching this mornings advisory and 8-12" of new snow with total snowpack depth ranging from 80-120cm. We chose a safe location in an opening below treeline on a NW aspect @ 7900' on Mt Lola to dig into the snow. Our pit was as expected with a mostly cohesive structure in the upper portion of the snowpack sitting ontop of the uncohesive Dec 1 facets in the lower portion of the snowpack. We did an ECT which propagated across the entire column on the 20th tap failing on the Dec 1 facets 45cm above the ground. On our way out winds increased and blowing snow was consistent at moderate rates filling in the tracks in front of us. Test slopes did not produce any shooting cracks or failures on the few we tried. We stuck with simple terrain that was easy to manage and avoided any and all avalance terrain.