Tamarack Tour

I did an early morning tour up Tamarack this morning. It was 3 degrees F when I left the truck. It warmed up to a balmy 20.  There were 2 - 4" of verry light new snow overnight.  I didn't notice any signs of instablity on the way up. The wind slabs up high were very prominent, but jumping on them on test slopes did not produce any failures.  

I dug a quick pit at 8500 feet on a NE facing, 35 degree, protected NE facing slope.  

There were 8cm of new snow on top of a 35cm layerr of four finger hardness snow. Then there was an 8 - 10cm layer of finger hardness snow above an 8cm pencil hardness crust layer.  Below that there was a variable layer of unconsolidated snow from 2 - 8cm thick.  Below that, to 110cm from the surface it was finger to pencil hardness.  I did not dig, or measure to, the ground.

I did a compressiion test with CT15 at 25cm from the surface, with a planar surface, but not a completely clean break. (My. picture didn't come out well).  Then I had a CT28 at 65cm, also with a planar surface (picture attached).