Rough conditions at Becker Peak

We toured along Becker ridge and learned that due to the fire, the trees on the north side of Becker are not enough to shelter that slope from winds. Sastrugi and tree debris existed on the north aspect as far down slope as we could see. Conditions were rough enough that we instead chose to descend the sunny side towards hwy 50. That side held smooth, enjoyable snow down to 7400ft, where the surface snow became too wet and unconsolidated to continue. 

We performed multiple snowpack tests throughout our tour, and could find buried surface hoar with Shovel Tilts on both the sunny and shady sides, but Compression Tests and Extended Column Tests did not indicate instability anywhere in the top 60cm of snow. We did notice early stage near surface faceting with a thin 2" wind packed layer on top of it, with easy planar hand shears under the wind packed snow.